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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Animal Metabolism-Agricultural Chemicals Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #228897
Title: Suitability of magnetic particle immunoassay for the analysis of PBDEs in Hawaiian freshwater fish and crabs in comparison with gas chromatography/electron capture detection-ion trap mass spectrometry

Author
item XU, TING
item CHO, II KYU
item WANG, DONGLI
item RUBIO, FERNANDO
item Shelver, Weilin
item GASC, ANNE
item LI, JI
item LI, QING

Submitted to: Environmental Pollution
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 9/19/2008
Publication Date: 11/1/2008
Citation: Xu, T., Cho, I.K., Wang, D., Rubio, F.M., Shelver, W.L., Gasc, A.M.E., Li, J., Li, Q.X. 2009. Suitability of magnetic particle immunoassay for the analysis of PBDEs in Hawaiian euryhaline fish and crabs in comparison with gas chromatography/electron capture detection-ion trap mass spectrometry. Environmental Pollution 157:417-422. DOI:10.1016/j.envpol.2008.09.033.

Interpretive Summary: Polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) are a group of flame retardants that have a large impact on environmental and food safety issues because they are slow to degrade and can bio-accumulate throughout the food chain. This class of compounds has been found in a large variety of environmental and food samples in different geographical areas. A simplified method called enzyme immunoassay was used to measure the PBDE levels in Hawaiian fishes. This method has a fast turnaround time and can be used on site. The results were verified with an instrumental method called GC-MS. These two methods produced comparable results demonstrating the suitable usage of immunoassays.

Technical Abstract: A gas chromatograph/electron capture detector-ion trap mass spectrometer (GC/ECD-ITMS) was used for the determination of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in freshwater fish and crabs. The samples were also analyzed with an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). GC/ECD-ITMS results showed that average recoveries from the spiked fish samples, blanks, and quality control samples are in a range of 58-123%, 63-118% and 61-126%, respectively, which are comparable with the ELISA results. Using this GC/ECD-ITMS method, PBDE concentrations were found ranging from 28 ng/g to 1845 ng/g lipid weight (lw) in all fish species collected from freshwater sources in Hawaii. The general BDE congener concentration profile observed in this study is BDE-47 > BDE-100 > BDE-154 > BDE-99 > BDE-153 > BDE-28 > BDE-183. The ELISA results expressed as BDE-47 equivalents correlated well with those of GC/ECD-ITMS, with a correlation coefficient (R2= 0.68) and regression coefficient (slope = 0.82). Comparison of ELISA with GC/ECD-ITMS in the analysis of fish samples demonstrated that ELISA provides a timely and cost effective method to screen PBDEs in various fish and crab samples.