The increasing use of engineered nanoparticles (NPs) in consumer and biomedical products has raised concern over their potential accumulation, transformation, and toxicity in biological systems. Accurate analytical methods are essential to detect, characterize, and quantify NPs in complex biological matrices. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) has emerged as a leading technique due to its high sensitivity, elemental selectivity, and quantitative capabilities. This review critically evaluates recent advances (from January 2020 onward) in ICP-MS-based methods for analysis of NPs in biological samples. Two main strategies are discussed: single-particle ICP-MS (spICP-MS) and hyphenated techniques coupled to ICP-MS. spICP-MS allows direct determination of particle size, concentration, and metal content at environmentally relevant levels. It is the most widely used approach and is therefore examined in greater detail, with attention to extraction procedures, particle types, sample matrices, and inherent limitations. Advances in laser ablation spICP-MS for tissue imaging and spatially resolved NPs detection are also covered. Methods using hyphenated techniques, such as hydrodynamic chromatography, size-exclusion chromatography, capillary electrophoresis, Taylor dispersion analysis, and field-flow fractionation, are increasingly employed to address limitations spICP-MS. These approaches can provide enhanced insight into particle size distributions, aggregation behavior, and interactions with complex sample matrices. This review offers a comparative evaluation of both single-particle and hyphenated methods, discussing their respective advantages and limitations. Emphasis is placed on the complementarity of these techniques and how their combined use can offer a more complete understanding of NPs' fate in biological systems.

• Klíčová slova
• biological samples | inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP‐MS) | nanoparticles | separation | single particle,
• MeSH
• hmotnostní spektrometrie * metody   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• nanočástice * analýza   chemie   MeSH
• velikost částic MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• zvířata MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• přehledy MeSH

Recent studies have demonstrated the applicability of the "single particle" mode in laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry to map and size particles simultaneously. The transport efficiency (TE) is an important parameter in this configuration and affects the detection of individual nanoparticles, reliability of nanoparticle characterization, and related applications. This study introduces a novel method for the precise determination of TE, based on counting upconversion nanoparticles from gels characterized by fluorescent microscopy. The method was found to be most suitable for the 2940-nm laser ablation system, achieving virtually quantitative nanoparticle desorption, with TE primarily governed by ablation cell design and aerosol transport efficiency. With the 213-nm laser, attention had to be paid to incomplete desorption and possible nanoparticle redeposition at low laser fluences to avoid variability in TE measurements. Finally, use of the 193-nm laser-induced nanoparticle disintegration, resulting in elevated baseline noise and lower sensitivity, which prevented the use of this approach for the determination of TE. This study highlights the versatility of the proposed method, while also identifying its limitations, in terms of wavelength and fluence.

• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH