Immunoenrichment of urinary S-phenylmercapturic acid

A carefully designed hapten-protein conjugate has enabled the generation of a monoclonal antibody reactive with S-phenylmercapturic acid (S-PMA). The immobilized antibody retains immunoreactivity and can be used to enrich S-PMA from the urine of workers exposed to benzene. The performance of the immunoaffinity column has been validated by comparison with data obtained by GC/MS analysis from the urine of benzene-exposed workers (range 12-168 mu g l(-1), corr, coeff. 0.98, n = 23). Furthermore immunoaffinity chromatography facilitates the quantitative determination of urinary S-PMA by reversed phase HPLC. Bioconcentration of S-PMA from the urine of benzene-exposed workers has permitted the quantification of S-PMA by HPLC at 8 h TWA (time weighted average) exposures of around 1 ppm. The potential application of immunoaffinity enrichment in biomonitoring studies is discussed.