A new method for identification of in vitro metabolites of 2,3,7,8-TCDD with rat liver microsomes by using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) is known as a highly toxic environmental contaminant and poses potential risks to human and animal health. As a persistent organic pollutant, 2,3,7,8-TCDD is hard to metabolize and thus gets accumulated in the human and animal body. Literature reports on the metabolism study of 2,3,7,8-TCDD are rare. The traditional method of GC-MS for 2,3,7,8-TCDD analysis might not be amenable for the direct analysis of its polar metabolites. In this study, in vitro metabolism of 2,3,7,8-TCDD with rat liver microsomes by using LC-MS and MS/MS was investigated and two hydroxylated metabolites of 2,3,7,8-TCDD and four trichloro-dihydroxydibenzo-p-dioxins were identified from the direct LC-MS and MS/MS analyses of the incubated samples.