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Direct multi-elemental analysis of cerebrospinal fluid samples by LA-ICP-MS employing an aerosol local extraction cryogenic ablation cell

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Abstract

A novel method for direct high-throughput analysis of multi-elements in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry with an aerosol local extraction cryogenic ablation cell (ALEC-LA-ICP-MS) was developed. Microliter-level CSF samples were frozen by a designed cryogenic ablation cell and directly analyzed by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) without time-consuming pretreatment. Compared with the precision obtained at room temperature (20℃), that obtained at low temperature (− 25℃) was significantly improved; the RSDs were reduced from 8.3% (Zn) to 32.6% (Mn) to 2.2% (Pb) to 6.5% (Mn) with six times parallel determination. To meet the analytical requirement of the micro-volume CSF samples, the laminar flow aerosol local extraction strategy was adopted to improve the transmission efficiency of aerosols, and the signal intensity was increased by four times compared with the standard commercial ablation cell. The standard solution with 0.4% bovine serum albumin (BSA) matrix was used as matrix-match external standard, and Rh was added into the samples as internal standard. The limits of detection (LODs) ranged from 0.17 μg·L−1 (Mn) to 8.67 μg·L−1 (Mg). Standard addition recovery experiments and the determination of CRM serum L-1 and L-2 were carried out to validate the accuracy of the method; all results indicated there were excellent accuracy and precision in the proposed method. The matrix-scanning function in the GeoLas software combined with the microwell plate realizes the high-throughput automatic analysis. Twenty-four CSF samples from different patients were determined; the results showed that there might be a correlation between the metal elements in CSF and the diseases, which means that the proposed method has potential in the diagnosis of neurological diseases.

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Acknowledgements

The editor and two anonymous reviewers are also thanked for their conscientious treatments and constructive suggestions on improving the manuscript.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No.2021YFC2903003) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.41873072).

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  1. Fan Li and Hua Cui contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Fan Li, Dingwen Zhang, Huilai Li, Wei Guo, Lanlan Jin & Shenghong Hu

  2. Department of Clinical Laboratory, Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430060, People’s Republic of China

    Hua Cui

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  1. Fan Li
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Correspondence to Shenghong Hu.

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Twenty-four CSF samples were taken from the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (Wuhan, China), after approval by the Renmin Hospital of Wuhan University (Wuhan, China).

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Li, F., Cui, H., Zhang, D. et al. Direct multi-elemental analysis of cerebrospinal fluid samples by LA-ICP-MS employing an aerosol local extraction cryogenic ablation cell. Anal Bioanal Chem 415, 6051–6061 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-023-04878-2

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