Comparison of spectroscopic investigation and computer modelling of lanthanide(III) and actinide(III) speciation in human biological fluids

Radionuclides represent a serious health risk to humans in case of incorporation. To get a first insight into the transport and metabolism in the human organism, we compared the speciation of Eu(III) and Cm(III) in human biological fluids calculated by thermodynamic modelling with spectroscopic results obtained by time-resolved laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy (TRLFS) with regard to the analogy of lanthanides and actinides.
For spectroscopic studies, fresh saliva and urine samples were collected from healthy volunteers and analyzed within few days. For TRLFS measurements, all samples have been spiked in vitro with europium or curium. To identify the dominant species the measured spectroscopic data were compared to reference spectra with single organic and inorganic constituents of the biological fluids.
The TRLFS spectra with urine showed that all samples with a pH below and all samples with a pH above 5.8 each exhibit strikingly similar spectra. The TRLFS spectra with saliva were all similar in the pH range between 5 and 8. Comparing the measured spectra with the reference data, we found that in urine at lower pH citrate complex species dominate the speciation of both metals while at higher pH and in saliva the spectra were identical to those in inorganic electrolyte solution.
The speciation calculation, carried out with the computer program MEDUSA and the accompanying hydrothermal database HYDRA, showed for urine in accordance to the experimental results at pH values around 5 a dominating citrate speciation for both metals. In contrast to the experiments resulted the calculation at higher pH values for urine and in the whole observed pH for saliva in a simple phosphate complexation. However, spectroscopic investigations signed of a more complex speciation behaviour which cannot be described with single inorganic complexes.
In conclusion, the comparison of experimental speciation investigation and computer modelling shows that because of their simplifications models cannot always image the complex natural processes correctly.