The reliable measurement of non-transferrin-bound iron (NTBI) in serum has proved to be difficult and generally time consuming. We have sought a simple and fast method for such a determination. We adopted a fluorescence assay and designed a fluorescent dye with a chelating agent attached to sense iron. To avoid autofluorescence from serum samples, the iron probes were linked to beads and the autofluorescence could be separated and excluded from the measurement by flow cytometry due to the size difference between beads and serum proteins. Fluorescent beads containing both fluorescent and chelating moieties have been synthesized. The nature of the chelating function has been systematically investigated using four different chelators: bidentate hydroxypyranone, bidentate hydroxypyridinone, hexadentate hydroxypyranone and hexadentate hydroxypyridinone, each with different iron affinity constants. Competition studies demonstrate that the hexadentate hydroxypyridinone-based beads are capable of scavenging most of low molecular mass and albumin-bound iron but negligible amounts of iron from transferrin and ferritin. Serum samples from 30 patients with different types of disease and normal volunteers were measured. The concentrations of NTBI fall in the range −0.41 to +6.5 μM. The data have been compared with those obtained from the traditional ‘NTA’ method.
对血清中的非转铁蛋白结合铁(NTBI)进行可靠的测定已被证明是一件非常困难的事情,而且一般都比较耗时。我们一直在寻找一种简单、快速的测定方法。我们采用了荧光检测法,并设计了一种附有螯合剂的荧光染料来感知铁。为了避免血清样本中的自发荧光,铁探针被连接到珠子上,由于珠子和血清蛋白之间的尺寸差异,自发荧光可以被分离出来,并排除在流式细胞仪的测量之外。我们已经合成了同时含有荧光和螯合分子的荧光珠。我们使用四种不同的螯合剂系统地研究了螯合功能的性质:双叉羟基吡喃酮、双叉羟基吡啶酮、六位羟基吡喃酮和六位羟基吡啶酮,每种螯合剂都具有不同的铁亲和常数。竞争研究表明,基于六齿羟基吡啶酮的珠子能够清除大部分低分子质量和白蛋白结合的铁,但从转铁蛋白和铁蛋白中清除的铁微乎其微。对 30 名不同类型疾病患者和正常志愿者的血清样本进行了测量。NTBI 的浓度范围为 -0.41 至 +6.5 μM。这些数据与传统的 "NTA "方法得出的数据进行了比较。