Electrochemical Determination of Metallothioneins by the Modified Brdička Procedure as an Analytical Tool in Biomonitoring Studies

Abstract

Present study aims to improve the modified Brdicka procedure of metallothionein (MT) quantification in a way to reduce the analysis duration. Therefore, scan rate of the voltammetric sweep was increased from 0.0052 V s–1 to 0.013 V s–1 by lowering the duration of one step potential from 0.5 s to 0.2 s, which resulted in 2.5 times faster voltammetric sweep. Research confirmed high accuracy and reliability of MT measurements, in both standard sample and samples of heat-treated cytosols of liver, gills and the intestine of European chub and liver of brown trout. The method was confirmed as fast and reliable electrochemical technique for quantification of MTs and this time- saving improvement is especially useful and applicable in different biomonitoring studies which require the analyses of numerous biological samples and high sample throughput.