Abstract
Aim: Dried blood spots (DBS) offer significant ethical and scientific advantages; however preparation of calibration curves often times, off-sets some of these advantages. We have developed a methodology wherein small volumes of external calibration standards can be spiked on to blank DBS cards. Results: A total of 2 μl of stock solution spotted on to blank blood spots yielded concentrations that were comparable to those obtained using conventional DBS method. The stability of six analytes on 10-day-old blank spots was within 80–120%. The new methodology was successfully applied to a hydroxycholorquine mouse pharmacokinetics study. Conclusion: Blank DBS samples can be opportunistically prepared from overweight or satellite animals, be stored, and subsequently spiked with standards to prepare calibration standards.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Ethical conduct of research
The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge M Sinz, T Olah and P Rajanna for their critical review of the manuscript.