Identifying indoor environmental patterns from bioaerosol material using HPLC

• Published in: Analytical and bioanalytical chemistry 2013-01, Vol.405 (1), p.351-357
• Main Authors: Staton, Sarah J. R., Castillo, Josemar A., Taylor, Thomas J., Herckes, Pierre, Hayes, Mark A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aerosols; Aerosols - chemistry; Air Pollutants - analysis; Air Pollution, Indoor - analysis; Air sampling; Airborne microorganisms; Analytical Chemistry; Atmospheric chemistry; Atmospherics; Bioaerosols; Biochemistry; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemical properties; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Chromatography; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid - methods; Environmental aspects; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Equipment Design; Food Science; High performance liquid chromatography; Human; Humans; Identification and classification; Indoor; Indoor environments; Laboratory Medicine; Liquid chromatography; Methods; Monitoring/Environmental Analysis; Occupation; Original Paper; Origins; Particle Size; Particulate matter; Particulate Matter - analysis; Pattern recognition; Protein expression; Proteins; Proteins - analysis; Sampling; Skin; Skin - pathology; Time Factors
• ISSN: 1618-2642; 1618-2650
• DOI: 10.1007/s00216-012-6495-4

A substantial portion of the atmospheric particle budget is of biological origin (human and animal dander, plant and insect debris, etc.). These bioaerosols can be considered information-rich packets of biochemical data specific to the organism of origin. In this study, bioaerosol samples from various indoor environments were analyzed to create identifiable patterns attributable to a source level of occupation. Air samples were collected from environments representative of human high-traffic- and low-traffic indoor spaces along with direct human skin sampling. In all settings, total suspended particulate matter was collected and the total aerosol protein concentration ranged from 0.03 to 1.2 μg/m 3 . High performance liquid chromatography was chosen as a standard analysis technique for the examination of aqueous aerosol extracts to distinguish signatures of occupation compared to environmental background. The results of this study suggest that bioaerosol “fingerprinting” is possible with the two test environments being distinguishable at a 97 % confidence interval. Figure Generalized schematic of human debris-based occupation detection. The various human occupation-related aerosolized material are collected via the filtration assembly along with other non-related aerosolized material. The collected material was then analyzed for total protein concentration as well as coarsely separated to generated unique pattern profiles. These profiles are information-rich enough to identify human occupation in an indoor space