Automated liquid microjunction surface sampling-HPLC-MS/MS analysis of drugs and metabolites in whole-body thin tissue sections

Background: The aim of this work was to develop a fully automated liquid extraction-based surface sampling system utilizing a commercially available autosampler coupled with HPLC-MS/MS detection. Results: Discrete spots selected for droplet-based sampling and automated sample queue generation, for both the autosampler and MS, were enabled by using in-house developed software. In addition, co-registration of spatially resolved sampling positions and HPLC-MS information to generate heat maps of compounds monitored for subsequent data analysis was also available in the software. The system was evaluated with whole-body thin tissue sections from propranolol-dosed rats. Conclusion: The spatial distributions of both the drug and its hydroxypropranolol glucuronide metabolites were consistent with previous studies employing other liquid extraction-based surface sampling methodologies.