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Improving species-specific IDMS: the advantages of triple IDMS

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Abstract

Triple isotope dilution mass spectrometry (triple IDMS) has been applied for the first time on protein quantification, especially on transferrin. Transferrin as an acute phase protein is a marker for several inflammation processes in the human body. Therefore, in Germany, the accurate and precise measurement of this important analyte is required. In this work, a new approach to triple IDMS is described and compared to double IDMS. Also, complete uncertainty budgets for both methods were set up to demonstrate the ability of this method to be used as a reference procedure. The relative expanded uncertainty (k = 2) for triple IDMS (3.6 %) is smaller than the one for double IDMS (4.0 %). The content of transferrin found in the human serum reference material ERM-DA470k/IFCC ((2.41 ± 0.08) g/kg) with both methods was in good agreement with each other and with the certificate. For triple IDMS ((2.426 ± 0.086) g/kg) and for double IDMS ((2.317 ± 0.092) g/kg), transferrin was determined. Although triple IDMS is a little more time consuming compared to double IDMS, there is the advantage that the isotopic composition of the spike material does not have to be determined. This is very useful especially in case of a marginal isotopic enrichment in the spike or problems with the accurate measurement of the spike isotope ratio.

Using triple instead of double species-specific IDMS helps to reduce the uncertainty and improves the reliability of the results, especially in cases where an accurate determination of the spike isotope ratio is difficult or impossible, because the spike ratio cancels from the equation

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt, Bundesallee 100, 38116, Braunschweig, Germany

    Claudia Frank, Olaf Rienitz, Claudia Swart & Detlef Schiel

Authors
  1. Claudia Frank
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  2. Olaf Rienitz
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  3. Claudia Swart
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  4. Detlef Schiel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claudia Frank.

Additional information

Published in the topical collection Metallomics with guest editors Uwe Karst and Michael Sperling.

Appendix

Appendix

All symbols used in Eqs. 1–7 are summarized in Table 5.

Table 5 Meaning of the symbols used in Eqs. 1–7
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Frank, C., Rienitz, O., Swart, C. et al. Improving species-specific IDMS: the advantages of triple IDMS. Anal Bioanal Chem 405, 1913–1919 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-012-6315-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-012-6315-x

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