Determination of norcantharidin in mouse tissues by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry and its tissue distribution study

The purpose of this study is to determine the concentrations of norcantharidin (CAS NO: 5442-12-6) in mouse tissues and investigate its tissue distribution after intragastric administration of disodium norcantharidate solution. A highly sensitive and specific liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method was developed and validated, using ribavirin (CAS NO: 36791-04-5) as the internal standard (IS). Norcantharidin and IS were extracted from 0.3 mL tissue homogenates using protein precipitation with acetone under acid condition. The analyte was separated on a C18 reverse phase column and analyzed by MS/MS in the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode using ESI with positive ionization, m/z 169→123 for norcantharidin and m/z 267→135 for IS. The developed method was validated over a linear range of concentrations 0.01~5 μg·mL − 1 in liver, lung, kidney, stomach, small intestine, uterus and testis, 0.005~0.5 μg·mL − 1 in heart, spleen and brain, the correlation coefficients (r 2 ) were between 0.9918 and 0.9976. The tissue distribution study result was as follows: The AUC 0-t of norcantharidin in tissues was in the order as follows: small intestine, stomach, uterus, kidney, testis, liver, lung, spleen, heart, brain.