Biomaterial Database

Suspect Screening Analysis of Pooled Human Serum Samples Using GC × GC/TOF-MS. 2024

Katherine A Phillips, and Alex Chao, and Rebecca L Church, and Kristin Favela, and Stavros Garantziotis, and Kristin K Isaacs, and Brian Meyer, and Annette Rice, and Risa Sayre, and Barbara A Wetmore, and Alice Yau, and John F Wambaugh

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27711, United States.

Humans interact with thousands of chemicals. This study aims to identify substances of emerging concern and in need of human health risk evaluations. Sixteen pooled human serum samples were constructed from 25 individual samples each from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences' Clinical Research Unit. Samples were analyzed using gas chromatography (GC) × GC/time-of-flight (TOF)-mass spectrometry (MS) in a suspect screening analysis, with follow-up confirmation analysis of 19 substances. A standard reference material blood sample was also analyzed through the confirmation process for comparison. The pools were stratified by sex (female and male) and by age (≤45 and >45). Publicly available information on potential exposure sources was aggregated to annotate presence in serum as either endogenous, food/nutrient, drug, commerce, or contaminant. Of the 544 unique substances tentatively identified by spectral matching, 472 were identified in females, while only 271 were identified in males. Surprisingly, 273 of the identified substances were found only in females. It is known that behavior and near-field environments can drive exposures, and this work demonstrates the existence of exposure sources uniquely relevant to females.