Chemiluminescence of creatinine/H2O2/Co2+ and its application for selective creatinine detection

Creatinine is an important biomarker in clinical diagnosis and biomonitoring programs as well as urinary metabolomic/metabonomics research. Current methods are either nonselective, time consuming or require heavy and expensive instruments. In this study, chemiluminescence of creatinine with hydrogen peroxide has been reported for the first time, and its chemiluminescence is remarkably enhanced in the presence of cobalt ions. By utilizing these phenomena, we have developed a sensitive and selective chemiluminescence method for creatinine determination by coupling with flow injection analysis. The calibration curve is linear in the range of 1×10−7–3×10−5 mol/L with a limit of detection (S/N=3) of 7.2×10−8 mol/L, which is adequate for detecting creatinine in the clinically accepted range. The relative standard deviation for seven measurements of 3×10−5 mol/L creatinine is 1.2%. The chemiluminescence method was then utilized to detect creatinine in human urine samples after simple dilution with water. It takes less than 1 min each measurement and the recoveries for spiked urine samples were 100–103%. The interference study demonstrates that some common species in urine, such as amino acids, ascorbic acid and creatine, have negligible effects on creatinine detection. The present method does not use expensive instruments, enzymes and separation technique. This method has the advantages of sensitivity, selectivity, simplicity, rapidity, and low cost. It holds great promise for basic or comprehensive metabolic panel, drug screening, anti-dopping, and urinary metabolomic/metabonomics research.