Steroids in the Human Newborn; Lipophilic Gel Separation and Gas Phase Analysis

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Abstract
GLC separations of newborn urinary steroids were carried out after isolation of sulfate and glucuronide fractions by differential hydrolysis. GLC and GC-MS data allowed the characterization of the major components in these complex mixtures. It was found that the sulfo-conjugated metabolites were typical of the new born steroid production whereas steroids excreted as glucuronides in the first days of life might have been mainly of maternal origin. Further study of individual steroid metabolites was undertaken using a preliminary fractionation of the extracts with a straight-phase lipophilic gel column. This type of separation appeared ideally suited as a complementary technique to GLC and GC-MS in the study of biological mixtures, since it provided clean and clear cut fractions with high recovery and offered a versatile type of separation yielding structural information. A diol-one fraction obtained by this method was studied by GC-MS with single ion monitoring which yielded evidence for the presence of 15 α-hydroxy-dehydroepiandrosterone (15 α-OH-DHA) in the sulfo-conjugated urinary steroids of a normal newborn infant.

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