Determination of formaldehyde in single cell by capillary electrophoresis with LIF detection

As a small molecule gas, formaldehyde (FA) is the simplest carbonyl active material and plays an important role in the carbon cycle of metabolism. However, due to the volatile nature of the gas, it is difficult to accurately quantify its content, which limits the study of the mechanism of action in life activities. Thus, an efficient approach to quantitative detection of FA in cells especially in single cell is urgent needed. Nevertheless, no method for quantifying FA in single cell has been reported to date. In this work, a fluorescent probe N-propyl-4-hydrazino-naphthalimide (NPHNA), which has highly desirable attributes and has been applied to living biological samples, was chosen as labeling reagent to detect endogenous FA at single cell level. After optimization of separation conditions, fast baseline separation of the FA derivative N-propyl-4-hydrazone-naphthalimide product (NPHNA-FA) and NPHNA was achieved in about 5 min by CE with LIF detection. The detection limit for FA was 5 amol (S/N ratio of 3). The developed method was validated by the measurements of intracellular levels of FA in single cell.