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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 - UNIV OF HAWAII, HONOLULU
item CHO, II KYU - UNIV OF HAWAII, HONOLULU
item WANG, DONGLI - UNIV OF HAWAII, HONOLULU
item RUBIO, FERNANDO - ABRAXIS LLC
item Shelver, Weilin
item GASC, ANNE - ENCORE, INC., HAWAII
item LI, JI - CHINA AG UNIV, BEIJING CH
item LI, QING - UNIV OF HAWAII, HONOLULU

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.