The occurrence and development of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is related to the level of trace elements. The mechanism of changes in trace element concentration and the identification of HCC risks associated with them are not clear. Therefore, an accurate and reliable approach for quantification of the level of trace elements in the serum of liver cancer patients is of great significance. In this study, we proposed a novel strategy for accurate determination of trace elements such as Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Se in the serum of HCC patients based on inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry (ICP-MS/MS). In the MS/MS mode, N2O was used as the reaction gas, and an octopole reaction system (ORS) was employed to provide interference-free conditions and a sufficiently low limit of detection (LOD) for the determination of analytical elements. The internal standard elements with similar masses and similar mass spectrometry behavior were selected to correct the matrix effect. The LODs of Mn, Fe, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Se were as low as 0.013, 0.25, 0.010, 0.020, 0.17, and 0.008 μg L-1, respectively. Bovine serum (SRM 1598a) was adopted as the standard reference material to evaluate the accuracy of the method, and the developed method was successfully applied to determine the content of Mn, Fe, Cu, Zn, Ni, Se in serum from HCC patients. The obtained results were in agreement with that of sector field ICP-MS (SF-ICP-MS). The contents of Fe and Cu in the serum of HCC patients were higher compared to that of healthy controls, while the contents of Zn and Se were lower than that of healthy controls. Furthermore, no significant differences were observed in the contents of Mn and Ni in the serum of HCC patients and healthy controls.
Keywords: Hepatocellular carcinoma; Inductively coupled plasma tandem mass spectrometry; N(2)O; Serum; Trace elements.
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