Analytical Sciences

Major-to-Ultratrace Elements in Bone-Marrow Fluid as Determined by ICP-AES and ICP-MS

Takuya HASEGAWA,* Hirotaka MATSUURA,* Kazumi INAGAKI,** and Hiroki HARAGUCHI* 

*Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya 464-8603, Japan
**Environmental Standard Section, National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba Center 3-10, Umezono 1-1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8563, Japan

The major-to-ultratrace elements in human bone-marrow fluid were determined by ICP-AES (inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry), and ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry). The bone-marrow fluid sample was centrifuged prior to acid digestion to exclude the bone piece from bone marrow, and then digested with nitric acid. As a result, 20 elements could be determined over the concentration range from 1610 ug g^-1 for Na to 0.00043 ugg^-1 for W. It was found that Fe, Zn and Sb were enriched by ca. 264-, 7- and 15-fold, respectively, in bone-marrow fluid, compared to those in human blood serum. Alkali metals (K, Rb, Cs), except for Na, were also significantly enriched in bone-marrow fluid. Furthermore, the concentrations of various elements, such as Fe, P, Al, Zn, Cu, Se, Zr, Sn, Ag and W, were significantly higher than those in open seawater.

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