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Nutritional Methodology

High Resolution Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry Allows Rapid Assessment of Iron Absorption in Infants and Children^1,2

U.S. Department of Agriculture/ARS Children’s Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030

³To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: zchen1{at}bcm.edu.

Stable isotope absorption studies of iron have been limited by the high cost and limited availability of isotope ratio analysis using thermal ionization MS (TIMS). The development of high-resolution double focusing inductively coupled plasma MS (ICP-MS) may permit more cost-efficient sample analysis due to its high throughput, lower cost, easy sample pretreatment, and greater availability. Our objective was to develop an ICP-MS methodology for the measurement of iron isotope ratios using very small blood volumes. We developed a technique using multiple iron-nickel mixing standard solutions to adjust for nickel interference calibration. RBC samples from human subjects previously given ⁵⁸Fe and ⁵⁷Fe were analyzed for iron isotope ratios and compared with our current methodology (TIMS). Reproducibility of iron isotope ratios provided external relative SD < 0.5 and 0.7% (1 SD) for ⁵⁷Fe/⁵⁴Fe and ⁵⁸Fe/⁵⁴Fe, respectively. Iron isotope ratios from ICP-MS analysis did not differ from those from TIMS based on statistical analyses, nor did the calculated iron absorption values. The mean and SD of iron absorption did not differ when measured by TIMS or ICP-MS. A 2-µL RBC sample was sufficient for ICP-MS iron isotope ratio analysis with an internal relative SD < 0.5% and analytical time < 5 min. This technique may assist groups in increasing their use of stable isotope methods to assess iron absorption in infants and children.

KEY WORDS: • inductively coupled plasma MS • iron absorption • isobaric interference • mass bias • stable isotopes

This article has been cited by other articles:

				M. F. Lynch, I. J. Griffin, K. M. Hawthorne, Z. Chen, M. G. Hamzo, and S. A. Abrams Iron Absorption Is More Closely Related to Iron Status Than to Daily Iron Intake in 12- to 48-Mo-Old Children J. Nutr., January 1, 2007; 137(1): 88 - 92. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]