title: Subattomole sensitivity in biological accelerator mass spectrometry.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Ion Physics, Angström Laboratory, Department of Engineering Sciences, Box 534, Uppsala University, SE-751 21 Uppsala, Sweden. mehran.salehpour@teknik.uu.se
authors.forename: Mehran
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salehpour
authors.forename: Göran
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Possnert
authors.forename: Helge
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bryhni
mesh_terms: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents / Q000097:blood / Q000652:urine; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014150:Antipsychotic Agents