Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectrometric Evaluation of Iron Excretion in Mouse Urine Caused by Whole-Body Gamma Irradiation

A procedure for the determination of iron in mice urine using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry was developed. The mice urinary samples contain many organic compounds in the matrix, whose concentrations are approximately 20%, and the value is 30-fold higher compared to those found in human urine. Moreover, only 0.2 mL or less of urine was obtained as a sample volume per urination event. It was difficult to decompose the organic materials in the samples by wet digestion using mineral acids and oxidising agents, because of the tiny volumes. In this experiment, raw urinary samples were placed directly into the graphite tube furnace for analysis. The organic contents were simply ashed during the preheating stages. To facilitate ashing in the furnace, air was invaded from the surroundings by interrupting the stream of argon gas. Atomic absorption was measured at 248.3270 nm (wavelength for atomic absorption), with the background monitored at 247.0658 nm (wavelength for background correction). The optimised instrument operating conditions precluded the use of chemical modification technique. The analytical procedures used are quite simple, i.e. an aliquot of raw urine sample was injected directly into the graphite tube furnace and was followed by a suitable heating programme with no chemical modifier. Therefore, this method is useful for scientists who are not familiar with delicate chemical experiments. The proposed analytical method was applied as a kind of biomarker by determining iron concentrations in urinary samples of mice, which were irradiated with 4 Gy of gamma irradiation to their whole body. The time dependence of the iron concentration was determined, and the iron concentrations increased within 1 day of irradiation exposure, then decreased to ordinal values after several days