Subattomole sensitivity in biological accelerator mass spectrometry.

The Uppsala University 5 MV Pelletron tandem accelerator has been used to study (14)C-labeled biological samples utilizing accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) technology. We have adapted a sample preparation method for small biological samples down to a few tens of micrograms of carbon, involving among others, miniaturizing of the graphitization reactor. Standard AMS requires about 1 mg of carbon with a limit of quantitation of about 10 amol. Results are presented for a range of small sample sizes with concentrations down to below 1 pM of a pharmaceutical substance in human blood. It is shown that (14)C-labeled molecular markers can be routinely measured from the femtomole range down to a few hundred zeptomole (10 (-21) mol), without the use of any additional separation methods.

Biological accelerator mass spectrometry at Uppsala University.

A new research programme for the biological applications of accelerator mass spectrometry has been initiated at Uppsala University and the first results are presented. A (14)C-labelled pharmaceutical substance has been dissolved in human blood, plasma and urine and diluted over 3 orders of magnitude. The measured drug concentrations were found to be in good agreement with the predicted values. Furthermore, the effect of the sample preparation background contribution has been studied as the sample amount was varied down to sub-microl sizes.