The influence of low-energy accelerated electrons on the structural characteristics of unsaturated fatty acids by high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

A method of studying the radiation effect of low-energy electron beam on the structural characteristics of a number of unsaturated fatty acids present in fish oil: oleic, linoleic, arachidonic, eicosapentaenoic and docosahexaenoic acids using high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry has been proposed. The solution used was: 1 μl of commercially available fish oil containing omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids in 1 ml of 0. 9 % NaCl physiological solution. The samples were irradiated at the UELR-1-25-T-001 electron accelerated with an energy of 1 MeV at an average beam current of 0.5 μA and a dose rate of 10 Gy/sec at doses of 0.25, 0.5, 1, 5, and 8 kGy. The structural integrity of selected unsaturated fatty acids was analyzed by high-resolution liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry with high-resolution tandem mass spectrometric detection (HPLC-MS/MS). The content of intact unsaturated fatty acid molecules was estimated by comparing the peak areas of analytes in the irradiated solution with a control sample that was not irradiated. Taking into account the optimization of detection conditions, detection limits were calculated for each acid, and two variants of identification of the presence of unsaturated fatty acids in the sample were distinguished: reliably detected and not detected. Using the developed approach, a decrease in the content of omega-3 fatty acids — eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid in water samples as a result of exposure to low-energy accelerated electrons in the dose range from 0.25 to 8 kGy at an average power of 10 Gy/sec was established.