Study of the metabolic conversion of imipramine and desipramine to N-nitrosodesipramine by bacteria using a nitrogen-selective GC analysis.
A GC method using dual nitrogen selective and flame ionization detectors was developed for the determination of N-nitrosodesipramine using N-butyryldesipramine as the internal standard. The precision of the method was found to be +/- 5.0% and the accuracy was +/- 4.9%. The method could be used to detect 10 ng/ml of N-nitrosodesipramine in bacterial cultures. When desipramine and sodium nitrite were incubated with aerobic or anaerobic bacteria, the nitrosamine level was found to be 10-300 times higher than the controls. When imipramine and potassium nitrate were incubated with a mixed anaerobic culture, the level of N-nitrosodesipramine was found to be 4.5 times higher than the control.