Chip-based nLC-TOF-MS is a highly stable technology for large-scale high-throughput analyses

Anal Bioanal Chem. 2013 May;405(14):4953-8. doi: 10.1007/s00216-013-6908-z. Epub 2013 Mar 23.

Abstract

Many studies focused on the discovery of novel biomarkers for the diagnosis and treatment of disease states are facilitated by mass spectrometry-based technology. HPLC coupled to mass spectrometry is widely used; miniaturization of this technique using nano-liquid chromatography (LC)-mass spectrometry (MS) usually results in better sensitivity, but is associated with limited repeatability. The recent introduction of chip-based technology has significantly improved the stability of nano-LC-MS, but no substantial studies to verify this have been performed. To evaluate the temporal repeatability of chip-based nano-LC-MS analyses, N-glycans released from a serum sample were repeatedly analyzed using nLC-PGC-chip-TOF-MS on three non-consecutive days. With an average inter-day coefficient of variation of 4 %, determined on log10-transformed integrals, the repeatability of the system is very high. Overall, chip-based nano-LC-MS appears to be a highly stable technology, which is suitable for the profiling of large numbers of clinical samples for biomarker discovery.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / instrumentation*
  • Chromatography, Liquid / instrumentation*
  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Humans
  • Mass Spectrometry / instrumentation*
  • Microfluidic Analytical Techniques / instrumentation*
  • Miniaturization
  • Polysaccharides / blood*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Sensitivity and Specificity

Substances

  • Polysaccharides