Design of lanthanide complex probes for highly sensitive time-resolved fluorometric detection methods and its application to biochemical, environmental and clinical analyses

Lanthanide complexes have been used for fluorescent labels to the wide variety of analytical methods including high performance liquid chromatography, immunoassay, and fluorescent imaging with time-resolved fluorometric measurements. Introduction of a time-resolved fluorometric measurement has been permitted the easy distinction of a specific long-lived fluorescence signal from short-lived natural background fluorescence present in most biological samples, reaction wells and optical components. Recently, new fluorescent labels and new instruments have been reported for time-resolved fluorescence including high performance liquid chromatography as in environmental analysis as river water, clinical chemistry as allergen assay, and a biochemical analysis as in staining method of proteins on polyacrylamide gel. The time-resolved fluorometric detection methods using new fluorescent labels improved the detection sensitivity compared to those of previously-described methods. This paper reviews those developments of applications of lanthanide fluorescent labels for various purposes: time-resolved fluorometric high performance liquid chromatography, time-resolved fluorescent immunoassay, and protein staining in recent years.