Determination of nicotine and cotinine in human hair using online solid phase extraction coupled with liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and their relation to hair cortisol and cortisone

Tobacco smoking is one of the critical public health threats all over the world. Since nicotine and its metabolite cotinine have been routinely used as the biomarkers to estimate the exposure to tobacco smoking, hair nicotine and cotinine analyses can provide of a retrospective index of nicotine and cotinine integrated over extended periods of several months prior to hair sampling to estimate the long-term exposure to tobacco smoking. Since the relationship between tobacco smoking and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is implicated in both stress response and nicotine addiction, better understanding of the association between hair nicotine, cotinine levels and hair cortisol, cortisone levels is an important prerequisite toward more adequate use of this method in future research. We here presented an online solid phase extraction (SPE) coupled with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for quantification of long-term integrated nicotine and cotinine in human hair. This method was applied to the analysis of hair nicotine and cotinine in 40 participants of smokers and nonsmokers (mean & PLUSMN; SD age: 46.25 & PLUSMN; 11.92 years; 40 % male) and the investigation of their association with hair cortisol and cortisone. Methanol together with glass tube was used for hair nicotine and cotinine extraction during the incubation time of 18-h. The limits of quantification were 1 pg/mg for nicotine as well as 0.1 pg/mg for cotinine. The inter-and intra-day coefficients of variation were below 15 %. The method recovery ranged between 90 % and 104 %. Group-level analyses revealed that smokers exhibited higher hair nicotine and cotinine levels compared to nonsmokers. Hair nicotine and cotinine levels showed significant positive associations with hair cortisol and cortisone levels in smokers (nicotine and cortisol: Spearman's & rho; = 0.619, p = 0.005; cotinine and cortisol: Spearman's & rho; = 0.468, p = 0.043; nicotine and cortisone: Spearman's & rho; = 0.773, p = 0.000; cotinine and cortisone: Spearman's & rho; = 0.531, p = 0.016), but not in nonsmokers. The presented online SPE LC-MS/MS method provides a simply and highly specific analytical strategy for the detection of nicotine and cotinine concentrations in human hair for the retrospective assessment of cumulative long-term nicotine and cotinine exposure. Furthermore, hair nicotine, cotinine levels correlate with hair cortisol, cortisone levels in smokers other than nonsmokers.