Historical review of sample preparation for chromatographic bioanalysis: Pros and cons

Sample preparation is a major task in a regulated bioanalytical laboratory. The sample preparation procedure significantly impacts assay throughput, data quality, analysis cost, and employee satisfaction. Therefore, selecting and optimizing an appropriate sample preparation method is essential for successful method development. Because of our recent expertise, this article is focused on sample preparation for high-performance liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection. Liquid chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (LC-MS) is the most common detection technique for small molecules used in regulated bioanalytical laboratories. The sample preparation technologies discussed are pre-extraction and post-extraction sample processing, protein precipitation (PPT), liquid-liquid extraction (ILLE), offline solid-phase extraction (SPIE), and online solid-phase extraction. Since all these techniques were in use for more than two decades, numerous applications and variations exist for each technique. We will not attempt to categorize each variation. Rather, the development history, a brief theoretical background, and selected references are presented. The strengths and the limitations of each method are discussed, including the throughput improvement potential. If available, illustrations from presentations at various meetings by our laboratory are used to clarify our opinion.