Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 10, 2025

Microsampling in Targeted Mass Spectrometry-Based Protein Analysis of Low-Abundance Proteins
Published on: January 13, 2023
How microsampling is impacting pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic studies: volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS)
Michele Protti1, Roberto Mandrioli2, Hugo M Santos3,4,5
1Research group of Pharmaco-Toxicological Analysis (PTA Lab), Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology (FaBiT), Alma Mater Studiorum - University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
None:
Microsampling, using minute amounts of biological specimen, is uniquely suited for carrying out human and animal pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic studies. Indeed, it provides important advantages over common blood-drawing procedures (e.g. increased analyte stability, simpler and cheaper storage and shipping, self-sampling possibility, reduced consumption of materials and animals) while also maintaining similar performance and result reliability. In the microsampling space, volumetric absorptive microsampling (VAMS) is currently considered one of the most important and widespread technologies, thanks to its volume accuracy capabilities, making it natively suitable for quantitative analysis. In this review, an exhaustive treatment of pharmacokinetic and toxicokinetic studies using VAMS is presented, as well as several examples of analytical methods prospectively enabling the employment of VAMS for the same purpose.
Related Concept Videos
Sampling Methods: Overview
In analytical chemistry, the choice of...
Analysis of Population Pharmacokinetic Data
Methods for Studying Drug Absorption: In situ
The Doluisio method involves perfusing a prepared segment of a rat's small intestine with a solution of radiolabeled drug and a non-absorbable marker. This helps to differentiate between absorbed and non-absorbed drug concentrations. The intestinal segment is connected at both ends using tubing and syringes,...
Noncompartmental Analysis: Miscellaneous Pharmacokinetic Parameters
One key aspect of the noncompartmental approach is determining a drug's total clearance. This can be done by dividing the drug dose by the area under the concentration-time curve from zero to infinity. The area under the concentration-time curve represents the drug's...
Methods for Studying Drug Absorption: In vitro
The diffusion cell method uses a two-compartment cell, including a donor compartment with the drug solution, which simulates the environment where the drug is applied, and a receptor compartment with a buffer solution, which simulates the environment...
Model-Independent Approaches for Pharmacokinetic Data: Noncompartmental Analysis
One important characteristic of noncompartmental analyses is that drug exposure increases proportionally with increasing doses. This...

