Investigation of the 12-Month Stability of Dried Blood and Urine Spots Applying Untargeted UHPLC-MS Metabolomic Assays
Palmer et al.
The finding, in our words
Dried blood and urine spots demonstrated greater metabolite stability than liquid biofluids across all storage conditions, remaining stable at ambient temperature for four weeks and for one year at -20°C. This establishes practical storage protocols for decentralised metabolomic studies, while dried blood spots additionally captured cellular metabolites absent in plasma, broadening the biochemical profile accessible through microsampling.
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Volumetric absorptive microsampling showed better precision than dried blood spots and a metabolic profile closer to whole blood, with stable signalling lipids for 24 hours at room temperature but significant changes after one week unless stabilised, indicating feasibility for decentralised sampling with the need for storage strategies.
This review establishes that microsampling across blood, saliva, urine and stool matrices offers validated workflows and regulatory recognition for human biomonitoring comparable to conventional methods. It finds that these decentralised approaches enhance participant acceptability and enable screening in remote or low-resource settings.
This review highlights that microsampling techniques such as dried blood spots and volumetric absorptive microsampling offer superior alternatives to traditional sampling for the mass spectrometry detection of prohibited substances in anti-doping analysis. It provides guidance on selecting appropriate analytical methods and sample pretreatment strategies to ensure sensitive detection and reliable storage conditions.
The authors developed and optimised a dual LC-MS workflow for non-targeted metabolomics from blood microsamples, comprising a 15-minute HILIC-MS method for polar metabolites and an RPLC-MS method for mid- to non-polar compounds. A 20% water/80% methanol extraction with rehydration offered a practical compromise that detected numerous metabolite features across amino acid, acylcarnitine and bile acid pathways, enabling decentralised metabolomic analysis.
A comparison of three patient-centric dried blood microsampling devices, paper DBS, Mitra and Tasso-M20, found strong to excellent correlation with traditional venous plasma for measuring branched-chain amino acids and ketoacids. Participants reported high acceptability and expressed a strong willingness to use these devices for decentralised self-collection.