Trace element analytical speciation in biological systems: importance,challenges and trends

Speciation of trace elements is a relatively new field and it was in toxicology that the relationship between the chemical form of a metal and its harmful effects was first recognized. The present need for chemical speciation information in biochemistry bioinorganic and clinical chemistry is documented in an attempt to justify the present demand for innovative chemical speciation strategies and analytical technologies.The challenge and complexity of speciation is stressed and three different categories of analytical speciation of increasing analytical difficulty are proposed. Analytical strategies developed so far to try to tackle speciation problems (computational approaches, direct species-specific and hybrid techniques) are reviewed and critically assessed for biological materials. It is indisputable these days that in most cases of real-life analytical speciation we have to resort to the development and use of hybrid techniques combining an adequate separation technique for the species physical separation and an element specific detector such as those based in atomic spectrometry. Examples of such strategies, as developed mainly in the author's laboratory and including chromatographic and non-chromatographic type hybrid strategies coupled to flame, plasma and electrothermal vaporization atomic detectors, are discussed in more detail.Finally, in light of the latest trends observed in this new field, the author attempts to cast a forward look into the foreseeable future of analytical speciation research in biological and biomedical sciences. The urgent plea for quality assurance in non-routine analysis and the concept of using complementary analytical techniques and definitive methods to attack the complexity of chemical speciation in biological systems are particularly highlighted.