The Detection of 1-Palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanol and Ethyl Glucuronide in Human Umbilical Cord

In utero exposure to ethanol continues to be a significant public health issue and neonatal healthcare professionals are in need of objective means to identify exposed newborns. The aim of this study was to fully validate two methods for the detection of two direct alcohol biomarkers, 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanol (POPE) and ethyl glucuronide (EtG), in umbilical cord and apply the assays to a group of authentic specimens. The limits of detections were 2 and 1 ng/g for POPE and ETG and the limits of quantitation were 4 and 3 ng/g, respectively. Inter and intra-day precision and accuracy measurements were within 15%. The assays were applied to 308 authentic specimens where we detected POPE in five (1.6%) specimens and EtG in twelve (3.9%) specimens. The mean concentrations were 11.4 ng/g ± 9.4 ng/g and 127.2 ± 227.7 ng/g for POPE and EtG, respectively. This study suggested that umbilical cord was a suitable specimen type for the identification of newborns exposed to ethanol in the womb and the prevalence of POPE and EtG detected in umbilical cord were consistent with the prevalence of self-reported binge drinking reported by the National Birth Defect Prevention Study (NBDPS) and Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Further studies are required to fully describe the association between the observed concentrations of POPE and EtG in umbilical cord to the level of maternal consumption of ethanol.