Determination of Chromium in Human Lung Fibroblast Cells Using a Large Bore—Direct Injection High-Efficiency Nebulizer with Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

A novel method for the determination of chromium in suspensions of human lung fibroblast cells is described by using a large bore–direct injection high efficiency nebulizer (LB-DIHEN) with micro-scale flow injection analysis and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometric detection. Chromium(VI)-treated cells were first counted and then suspended in a phosphate buffer saline solution. With the use of the method of standard additions, the relative concentration of Cr in ∼ 100 HLF cells/peak was determined at m/z = 50. Because the cells tend to clump and can yield inhomogeneities in the total number analyzed, Mg was used as an internal standard to compensate for the total cell mass. The level of Cr in HLF cells grown in a medium of 100 μM Na2CrO4 for two hours is on the order of 180 fg Cr/cell after correction for the number of cells in each injection.