Ex vivo instability of glycated albumin: A role for autoxidative glycation

Ex vivo protein modifications occur within plasma and serum (P/S) samples due to prolonged exposure to the thawed state-which includes temperatures above −30 °C. Herein, the ex vivo glycation of human serum albumin from healthy and diabetic subjects was monitored in P/S samples stored for hours to months at −80 °C, −20 °C, and room temperature, as well as in samples subjected to multiple freeze-thaw cycles, incubated at different surface area-to-volume ratios or under different atmospheric compositions. A simple dilute-and-shoot method utilizing trap-and-elute LC-ESI-MS was employed to determine the relative abundances of the glycated forms of albumin-including forms of albumin bearing more than one glucose molecule. Significant increases in glycated albumin were found to occur within hours at room temperature, and within days at −20 °C. These increases continued over a period of 1-2 weeks at room temperature and over 200 days at −20 °C, ultimately resulting in a doubling of glycated albumin in both healthy and diabetic patients. It was also shown that samples stored at lower surface area-to-volume ratios or incubated under a nitrogen atmosphere experienced less rapid glucose adduction of albumin-suggesting a role for oxidative glycation in the ex vivo glycation of albumin.