Isotope tracing enhancement of chemiluminescence assays for nitric oxide research.

Chemiluminescence assays are used widely for the detection of nitric oxide (NO)-derived species in biological fluids and tissues. Here, we demonstrate that these assays can be interfaced with mass-sensitive detectors for parallel determination of isotopic abundance. Results obtained with tri-iodide and ascorbic acid-based reductive assays indicate that mass spectrometric detection enables NO isotope-tracing experiments to be carried out to a limit of detectability of a few picomoles, a sensitivity similar to that of standard gas phase chemiluminescence methods.