A 96-well screen filter plate for high-throughput biological sample preparation and LC-MS/MS analysis.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry
• Laboratory Science

Background:

• Blood and plasma clots frequently obstruct pipet tips during sample preparation for in vivo studies.
• Manual clot removal is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and a bottleneck for automated high-throughput screening.
• Existing methods for clot removal are inefficient and can lead to inaccurate sample transfers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and validate a novel 96-well screen filter plate designed to eliminate clots from biological samples.
• To assess the efficiency and utility of the screen filter plate in simplifying sample preparation for in vivo studies.
• To demonstrate the compatibility of the screen filter plate with both manual and automated pipetting methods.

Main Methods:

• Development of a 96-well plate featuring stainless steel wire-mesh screens to filter out clots.
• Inclusion of the screen filter plate during the transfer of plasma samples from three diverse compounds.
• Analysis of plasma samples using liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) for comparison.
• Evaluation of sample preparation with and without the screen filter plate.

Main Results:

• The novel screen filter plate successfully excluded blood and plasma clots, allowing clear sample solutions to pass through.
• LC-MS/MS analysis showed good agreement between samples prepared with and without the screen filter plate.
• The device demonstrated efficiency in preventing pipetting failures caused by clots.

Conclusions:

• The 96-well screen filter plate is an effective and efficient tool for preparing blood and plasma samples.
• This reusable device simplifies sample preparation, reduces processing time, and is suitable for high-throughput applications.
• The screen filter plate has potential applications for processing other biological fluids containing particulates or aggregates.