Method Development and Validation of 6-Sulfatoxymelatonin (aMT6s) Quantitation in Human Urine

Rachel Sun, Jordan Nally

Abstract

Melatonin is the main hormonal product of the pineal gland and has a major physiological role in the control of circadian rhythmicity. Serum melatonin has very short life time and the urinary metabolites seem to reflect the overall dynamics of long term (hourly) melatonin metabolism in relation to many physiologic functions. 6-Sulfatoxymelatonin (aMT6s) is the major urinary metabolite. There are many published references to quantitate aMT6s in human urine with different detection methods, such as LC/UV, LC/FL, radioimmunoassay. This is the first time to report a validated method of aMT6s quantitation in human urine by LC/MS/MS.