Comparison of pharmacokinetic study profiles of insulin in rat plasma through conventional sampling and microsampling by micro-LC–MS/MS: supplementary materials

<p>Aim: With microsamples of blood, full pharmacokinetic profiles from individual animals can be obtained as</p> <p>an alternative to the sparse-sampling approach, where conventional volume samples from several animals</p> <p>are required. However, microsamples require assays that are more sensitive. Methods: The sensitivity of</p> <p>the LC–MS assay was increased 47-fold using microflow LC–MS. Results & conclusion: By analyzing both</p> <p>microsamples and conventional samples from the same animals, it is demonstrated that sparse-sampling</p> <p>profiles can be nonrepresentative of the full profiles. This bias can affect the tested treatment by increasing</p> <p>or reducing its apparent effect. Microsampling enables unbiased results compared with sparse-sampling.</p> <p>An increase in assay sensitivity to balance the low sample volumes was achievable by microflow LC–MS.</p>