Journal of Analytical & Bioanalytical Techniques
Open Access

Research Article

Utilisation of Bovine Bone Pellet as a Matrix-Matched Reference Material for Calcified Tissues in LA-ICP-MS Application

¹Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

²Tissue Engineering and Microfluidic Laboratory, Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, The University of Queensland, Australia

³School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, Australia

⁴Institute for Future Environments, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia

*Corresponding Author:

Yin Xiao
Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane
QLD, 4059, Australia
Tel: +61-7- 31386240
Fax: +61-7-31386030
E-mail: yin.xiao@qut.edu.au

Charlotte Allen
Institute for Future Environments
Queensland University of Technology
Brisbane, QLD, 4000, Australia
Tel: +61-7-3138 0177
E-mail: cm.allen@qut.edu.au

Received date: October 18, 2015; Accepted date: November 09, 2015; Published date: November 16, 2015

Citation: Han P, Zhou Y, Lu S, Lloyd T, Friis T, et al. (2015) Utilisation of Bovine Bone Pellet as a Matrix-Matched Reference Material for Calcified Tissues in LAICP- MS Application. J Anal Bioanal Tech S13:006. doi:10.4172/2155-9872.S13-006

Copyright: © 2015 Han P, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

One of the most challenging aspects of interpreting quantitative information of biological samples from laser inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) is a lack of appropriate matrix-matched internal standards that is needed for calibrations. There are standards available; however, most certified reference standard materials are suboptimal, due to the high variability and complexity of biological materials, especially for calcified tissues. In the present study, we described an approach in which bovine bone pellets are used as reliable matrixmatched standards for quantitative analysis of bone samples. Bovine tibial bones, sourced from a local butcher shop, were treated with or without autoclave sterilization. The samples were lyophilized over a 24 hour period, after which the elemental distributions in autoclaved, non-autoclaved bone pellets and naïve bone fragments were investigated using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) and LA-ICP-MS methods, in addition to homogeneity analysis of non-autoclaved bone pellets. The results demonstrated that non-autoclaved and autoclaved bone pellets shared similar average elemental concentrations after correcting for background signal; natural bone fragments, on the other hand, showed large sample variations. Factors such as low cost and ease of manufacture, “home-made” non-autoclaved bone pellets are the preferred option and these were subjected to further investigations. The homogeneity analysis revealed that non-autoclaved bone pellets had a higher degree of homogeneity, with minimal standard deviations and a uniform particle size of less than 100 μm. These results show that non-autoclaved bovine bone pellets are reliable and easy-to-make alternative to matrix-matched reference material with which to analyse calcified tissues by LA-ICP-MS.

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