Abstract The aim of this work was to synthesize 13 C internal standards for the quantification of 4-hydroxy-2 (E)-nonenal (HNE), a lipid peroxidation product, and of the etheno-adducts possibly formed by HNE damage to DNA nucleobases. We designed an eight-step synthesis starting from ethyl 2-bromoacetate and giving access to 4-[(tetrahydro-2H-pyran-2-yl) oxy]-2 (E)-nonenal. This compound is a precursor of HNE. The scheme was then used to ...