Asymmetrical flow field-flow fractionation (AF4) coupled with ICP-MS for multi element analysis of plasma proteins

This work demonstrates that FFF-ICP-MS is a promising tool for the non-denaturing and element-selective detection of proteins such as human albumin and transferrin, which are involved in many health studies. This is particularly attractive for applications in which the two plasma proteins act as binders of the same element (e.g. vanadium in diabetes studies). The further improvement in selectivity and multi-elemental capability offered by ICP-MS detection guarantee the future application of FFF-ICP-MS to the S/metal speciation of more complex mixtures of metal-containing proteins in biological samples. The simultaneous on-line combination of this hyphenated technique to UV-Vis/MALS offers a simple and straightforward approach to tentative verification of protein identity, which is particularly useful for routine bio-measurements.