Julie Kiebooms

Validated ultra high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method for quantitative analysis of total and free thyroid hormones in bovine serum

Thyroid hormones are essential hormones for regulating growth and development. Methods to accurately monitor low-levels (ppb-ppt) of these hormones in serum are needed to assess overall health, both from a clinical perspective as from environmental contaminant or drug exposures. In general, the separation of the free thyroid hormone fraction from animal sera is performed through labour intensive equilibrium dialysis, while detection of total and free thyroid hormone fractions in animals is done with commercially available radioimmunoassays (RIAs). This study reports newly developed analysis methods for both the total and free fractions of triiodothyronine (T3), reverse-triiodothyronine (rT3) and thyroxin (T4) from bovine serum, with a much higher specificity and selectivity than commercially available RIAs. The bovine serum extraction procedures of total and free T3, rT3, T4 were optimised with fractional factorial designs and consisted of, respectively, deproteinisation followed by liquid-liquid extraction, 30 kDA ultracentrifugation and solid phase extraction. Both free and total thyroid hormone UHPLC-HESI-MS/MS based analysis methods were successfully validated. The limits of quantification for T4, rT3 and T3 amounted respectively 0.04 ng mL(-1), 0.05 ng mL(-1), 0.03 ng mL(-1) for the total fraction, and 6.6 pg mL(-1), 2.6 pg mL(-1) and 2.7 pg mL(-1) for the free fraction. Individual recoveries of total and free thyroid hormone fractions ranged between 95.6 and 106.3% and 92.1 and 106.5%. Good results for repeatability and intra-laboratory reproducibility (RSD%) were observed, i.e. respectively ≤8.0% and ≤7.3% for the total and free fractions. Excellent linearity (R(2)≥0.99) and lack-of-fit was proven for both fractions. In conclusion, these methods show excellent in-house performance and possibilities for elaboration to application in other animal sera (e.g. feline, canine, equine).

Thiouracil-Forming Bacteria Identified and Characterized upon Porcine In Vitro Digestion of Brassicaceae Feed.

ABSTRACT In recent years, the frequent detection of the banned thyreostat thiouracil (TU) in livestock urine has been related to endogenous TU formation following digestion of glucosinolate-rich Brassicaceae crops. Recently, it was demonstrated that, upon in vitro digestion of Brassicaceae, fecal bacteria induce TU detection in livestock (porcine livestock > bovines). Therefore, the present study was intended to isolate and identify bacteria involved in this intestinal TU formation upon Brassicaceae digestion and to gain more insight into the underlying mechanism in porcine livestock. Twenty porcine fecal inocula (gilts and multiparous sows) were assessed through static in vitro colonic-digestion simulations with rapeseed. After derivatization and extraction of the fecal suspensions, TU was analyzed using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS2). On average, lower TU concentrations were observed in fecal colonic simulations in gilts (8.35 ng g−1 rapeseed ± 3.42 [mean ± standard deviation]) than in multiparous sows (52.63 ng g−1 ± 16.17), which correlates with maturation of the gut microbial population with age. Further exploration of the mechanism showed cell-dependent activity of the microbial conversion and sustained TU-forming activity after subjection of the fecal inoculum to moderate heat over a time span of up to 30 min. Finally, nine TU-producing bacterial species were successfully isolated and identified by a combination of biochemical and molecular techniques as Escherichia coli (n = 5), Lactobacillus reuteri (n = 2), Enterococcus faecium (n = 1), and Salmonella enterica subsp. arizonae (n = 1). This report demonstrates that endogenous formation of TU is Brassicaceae induced and occurs under colonic conditions most likely through myrosinase-like enzyme activity expressed by different common intestinal bacterial species.