Traditional and accelerator mass spectrometry for quantitation of human folate pools

Folate is a structurally diverse family of molecules that occur in low concentrations in biological tissues and fluids and therefore present complex challenges to the analytical chemist. As a result, techniques that quantify folates in biological specimens have emerged as a high scientific priority. In this manuscript, isotopic methods using traditional mass spectrometry for the measurement of whole blood total folate and 14C-accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) for human kinetic studies are presented. Additionally, recent developments with the intrinsic labeling of spinach folate from a [14C]-para-aminobenzoic is discussed.