TY - JOUR
T1 - Current applications and future perspectives on elemental analysis of non-invasive samples for human biomonitoring
AU - Lum, Judy Tsz-Shan
AU - Chan, Yun-Nam
AU - Leung, Kelvin Sze-Yin
N1 - Funding Information:
Kelvin Sze-Yin Leung thanks the funding support from the Innovation and Technology Commission ( PRP/048/19FX ). Yun-Nam Chan is supported by a postgraduate studentship offered by the University Grants Committee.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/11/1
Y1 - 2021/11/1
N2 - Humans are continuously exposed to numerous environmental pollutants including potentially toxic elements. Essential elements play an important role in human health. Abnormal elemental levels in the body, in different forms that existed, have been reported to be correlated with different diseases and environmental exposure. Blood is the conventional biological sample used in human biomonitoring. However, blood samples can only reflect short-term exposure and require invasive sampling, which poses infection risk to individuals. In recent years, the number of research evaluating the effectiveness of non-invasive samples (hair, nails, urine, meconium, breast milk, placenta, cord blood, saliva and teeth) for human biomonitoring is increasing. These samples can be collected easily and provide extra information in addition to blood analysis. Yet, the correlation between the elemental concentration in non-invasive samples and in blood is not well established, which hinders the application of those samples in routine human biomonitoring. This review aims at providing a fundamental overview of analytical methods of non-invasive samples in human biomonitoring. The content covers the sample collection and pretreatment, sample preparation and instrumental analysis. The technical discussions are separated into solution analysis and solid analysis. In the last section, the authors highlight some of the perspectives on the future of elemental analysis in human biomonitoring.
AB - Humans are continuously exposed to numerous environmental pollutants including potentially toxic elements. Essential elements play an important role in human health. Abnormal elemental levels in the body, in different forms that existed, have been reported to be correlated with different diseases and environmental exposure. Blood is the conventional biological sample used in human biomonitoring. However, blood samples can only reflect short-term exposure and require invasive sampling, which poses infection risk to individuals. In recent years, the number of research evaluating the effectiveness of non-invasive samples (hair, nails, urine, meconium, breast milk, placenta, cord blood, saliva and teeth) for human biomonitoring is increasing. These samples can be collected easily and provide extra information in addition to blood analysis. Yet, the correlation between the elemental concentration in non-invasive samples and in blood is not well established, which hinders the application of those samples in routine human biomonitoring. This review aims at providing a fundamental overview of analytical methods of non-invasive samples in human biomonitoring. The content covers the sample collection and pretreatment, sample preparation and instrumental analysis. The technical discussions are separated into solution analysis and solid analysis. In the last section, the authors highlight some of the perspectives on the future of elemental analysis in human biomonitoring.
KW - Human biomonitoring
KW - Non-invasive sample
KW - Solid analysis
KW - Speciation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85109441958&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.talanta.2021.122683
DO - 10.1016/j.talanta.2021.122683
M3 - Review article
C2 - 34364482
AN - SCOPUS:85109441958
SN - 0039-9140
VL - 234
JO - Talanta
JF - Talanta
M1 - 122683
ER -
