An Evaluation of Different Digestion Methods for the Quantitation of Inorganic Elements in Human Hair Using ICP-MS
The inorganic elements have unique properties in biochemical processes in humans. An increasing number of pathologies have been associated with essential element ions, such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. Hair has become an attractive clinical specimen for studying the longitudinal exposure to elemen...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Wiley
2022-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/5742468 |
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| author | Yue Liu Yang Yang Yin-Yin Xia Jamie V. de Seymour De-Zhang Zhao Yang-Mei Li Hua Zhang Ting-Li Han |
| author_facet | Yue Liu Yang Yang Yin-Yin Xia Jamie V. de Seymour De-Zhang Zhao Yang-Mei Li Hua Zhang Ting-Li Han |
| author_sort | Yue Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The inorganic elements have unique properties in biochemical processes in humans. An increasing number of pathologies have been associated with essential element ions, such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. Hair has become an attractive clinical specimen for studying the longitudinal exposure to elements from the external environment. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) coupled with nitric acid (HNO3) digestion is the most common approach for determining inorganic elements from human hair. This study aims to optimize the digestion method for the absolute quantitation of 52 elements using ICP-MS, for a large cohort study in human hair. Five different HNO3 (65%) digestion methods were investigated and evaluated for their internal standard solution stability, reproducibility, element coverage, and standard solution recovery efficiency, namely, room temperature for 24 h (RT), 90°C for 4 h (T90), ultrasonic-assisted digestion (UltraS), programmed digestion of microwave digestion (MicroD), and ordinary microwave oven digestion (O-MicroD). Our results demonstrated that O-MicroD, MicroD, and RT were the best performing digestion methods for coefficient of variation (CV) scores, coverage, and recovery efficiency, respectively. In particular, the O-MicroD method detected multiple elements in a small quantity of hair (3 mg), with minimum nitric acid usage (200 μl) and a short digestion time (30 min). The O-MicroD method had excellent reproducibility, as demonstrated by a continuous thousand injections of hair samples with three internal standards (CV: 103Rh = 3.59%, 115In = 3.61%, and 209Bi = 6.31%). Future studies of the elemental content of hair should carefully select their digestion method to meet the primary purpose of their study. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-39d3c4d66dd04fdf97612f92f196df63 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2090-8873 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry |
| spelling | doaj-art-39d3c4d66dd04fdf97612f92f196df632025-08-20T03:55:36ZengWileyJournal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry2090-88732022-01-01202210.1155/2022/5742468An Evaluation of Different Digestion Methods for the Quantitation of Inorganic Elements in Human Hair Using ICP-MSYue Liu0Yang Yang1Yin-Yin Xia2Jamie V. de Seymour3De-Zhang Zhao4Yang-Mei Li5Hua Zhang6Ting-Li Han7Department of Obstetrics and GynaecologyDepartment of Obstetrics and GynaecologyDepartment of Occupational and Environmental HygieneCollege of HealthCollege of PharmacySchool of Public Health and ManagementDepartment of Obstetrics and GynaecologyDepartment of Obstetrics and GynaecologyThe inorganic elements have unique properties in biochemical processes in humans. An increasing number of pathologies have been associated with essential element ions, such as lead, mercury, and cadmium. Hair has become an attractive clinical specimen for studying the longitudinal exposure to elements from the external environment. Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) coupled with nitric acid (HNO3) digestion is the most common approach for determining inorganic elements from human hair. This study aims to optimize the digestion method for the absolute quantitation of 52 elements using ICP-MS, for a large cohort study in human hair. Five different HNO3 (65%) digestion methods were investigated and evaluated for their internal standard solution stability, reproducibility, element coverage, and standard solution recovery efficiency, namely, room temperature for 24 h (RT), 90°C for 4 h (T90), ultrasonic-assisted digestion (UltraS), programmed digestion of microwave digestion (MicroD), and ordinary microwave oven digestion (O-MicroD). Our results demonstrated that O-MicroD, MicroD, and RT were the best performing digestion methods for coefficient of variation (CV) scores, coverage, and recovery efficiency, respectively. In particular, the O-MicroD method detected multiple elements in a small quantity of hair (3 mg), with minimum nitric acid usage (200 μl) and a short digestion time (30 min). The O-MicroD method had excellent reproducibility, as demonstrated by a continuous thousand injections of hair samples with three internal standards (CV: 103Rh = 3.59%, 115In = 3.61%, and 209Bi = 6.31%). Future studies of the elemental content of hair should carefully select their digestion method to meet the primary purpose of their study.http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/5742468 |
| spellingShingle | Yue Liu Yang Yang Yin-Yin Xia Jamie V. de Seymour De-Zhang Zhao Yang-Mei Li Hua Zhang Ting-Li Han An Evaluation of Different Digestion Methods for the Quantitation of Inorganic Elements in Human Hair Using ICP-MS Journal of Analytical Methods in Chemistry |
| title | An Evaluation of Different Digestion Methods for the Quantitation of Inorganic Elements in Human Hair Using ICP-MS |
| title_full | An Evaluation of Different Digestion Methods for the Quantitation of Inorganic Elements in Human Hair Using ICP-MS |
| title_fullStr | An Evaluation of Different Digestion Methods for the Quantitation of Inorganic Elements in Human Hair Using ICP-MS |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Evaluation of Different Digestion Methods for the Quantitation of Inorganic Elements in Human Hair Using ICP-MS |
| title_short | An Evaluation of Different Digestion Methods for the Quantitation of Inorganic Elements in Human Hair Using ICP-MS |
| title_sort | evaluation of different digestion methods for the quantitation of inorganic elements in human hair using icp ms |
| url | http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2022/5742468 |
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