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Production of the endogenous vasodilator nitric oxide (NO) from L-arginine by NO synthase is modulated by L-homoarginine, L-monomethylargine (MMA), asymmetric dimethylarginine (ADMA) and symmetric dimethylarginine (SDMA). Here we report on a stable isotope dilution liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method for simultaneous determination of these metabolites in plasma, cells and tissues. After addition of the internal standards (D-7-ADMA, D-4-L-homoarginine and C-13(6)-Larginine), analytes were extracted from the samples using Waters Oasis MCX solid phase extraction cartridges. Butylated analytes were separated isocratically on a Waters XTerra MS C18 column (3.5 mu m. 3.9 mm x 100 mm) using 600 mg/L ammonium formate in water - acetonitrile (95.5:4.5, v/v) containing 0.1 vol% formic acid, and subsequently measured on an AB Sciex API 3000 triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Multiple reaction monitoring in positive mode was used for analyte quantification. Validation was performed in plasma. Calibration lines were linear (r(2) >= 0.9979) and lower limits of quantification in plasma were 0.4 nM for ADMA and SDMA and 0.8 nM for the other analytes. Accuracy (% bias) was <3% except for MMA (<7%), intra-assay precision (expressed as CV) was <3.5%, inter-assay precision <9.6%, and recovery 92.9-103.2% for all analytes. The method showed good correlation (r(2) >= 0.9125) with our previously validated HPLC-fluorescence method for measurement in plasma, and was implemented with good performance for measurement of tissue samples. Application of the method revealed the remarkably fast (i.e. within 60 min) appearance in plasma of stable isotope-labeled ADMA, SDMA, and MMA during infusion of D-3-methyl-1-C-13-methionine in healthy volunteers. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.