Laser ablation ICP-MS for quantitative biomedical applications

• Published in: Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry 2012-06, Vol.403 (8), p.2113-2125
• Main Authors: Konz, Ioana, Fernández, Beatriz, Fernández, M. Luisa, Pereiro, Rosario, Sanz-Medel, Alfredo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analytical Chemistry; Animals; Biochemistry; Biological; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Complement; Electrophoresis; Electrophoresis, Gel, Two-Dimensional - methods; Equipment Design; Food Science; Histological Techniques - instrumentation; Histological Techniques - methods; Humans; Imaging; Labelling; Laboratory Medicine; Laser Therapy - instrumentation; Laser Therapy - methods; Mass spectrometry; Mass Spectrometry - instrumentation; Mass Spectrometry - methods; Metals - analysis; Methods; Molecular diagnostic techniques; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Nonmetals; Proteins; Proteins - analysis; Proteins - chemistry; Proteins - isolation & purification; Review; Strategy
• ISSN: 1618-2642; 1618-2650
• DOI: 10.1007/s00216-012-6023-6

LA-ICP-MS allows precise, relatively fast, and spatially resolved measurements of elements and isotope ratios at trace and ultratrace concentration levels with minimal sample preparation. Over the past few years this technique has undergone rapid development, and it has been increasingly applied in many different fields, including biological and medical research. The analysis of essential, toxic, and therapeutic metals, metalloids, and nonmetals in biomedical tissues is a key task in the life sciences today, and LA-ICP-MS has proven to be an excellent complement to the organic MS techniques that are much more commonly employed in the biomedical field. In order to provide an appraisal of the fast progress that is occurring in this field, this review critically describes new developments for LA-ICP-MS as well as the most important applications of LA-ICP-MS, with particular emphasis placed on the quantitative imaging of elements in biological tissues, the analysis of heteroatom-tagged proteins after their separation and purification by gel electrophoresis, and the analysis of proteins that do not naturally have ICP-MS-detectable elements in their structures, thus necessitating the use of labelling strategies. Figure New developments and most relevant applications of LA-ICP-MS are critically described in this review, with particular emphasis on quantitative strategies currently employ for analysis of proteins in biological tissues