High-speed mapping of Hg and Se in biological tissue via laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry

Abstract

While elemental mapping via LA-ICP-MS – i.e. mapping the distribution of elements across the surface of a solid material – has shown a substantial evolution towards higher speed, sensitivity and...

Quantitative mapping of mercury and selenium in mushroom fruit bodies with laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry

“…The LA settings are listed in Table 1 , and were optimized for fast combined monitoring of Hg and Se [ 46 ]. The ICP-MS unit was operated in no-gas mode.…”

“…For example, Debeljak et al pointed out unusually long washout times for Hg during LA-ICP-MS analysis, forcing them to perform spot analysis on a virtual grid of the sample surface and including 10 s waiting time after each spot [28]. However, in the 9 years since this publication, instrumentation and methods have improved significantly, and it is now possible to investigate the distribution of Hg and Se with an optimized setup at a pixel acquisition rate of 20 pixels per second [46]. Other concerns were raised regarding the quantification of Hg, since this element is especially prone to effects like evaporation or adsorption.…”

Atomic spectrometry update – a review of advances in environmental analysis

“…Rapid data acquisition is important in the elemental mapping of botanical tissues by LA-ICP-MS in order to obtain high-resolution images in minimal time. Careful optimisation of the type of ablation cell, the mixing bulb and the inner diameter of the aerosol-transport tubing reduced 185 the single-pulse response for Hg and Se to 50 ± 2 and 61 ± 4 ms, respectively. This represented a 5-fold improvement over the standard instrument configuration and allowed mapping of a segment of mushroom tissue at up to 20 pixels s −1 .…”

A systematic study of high resolution multielemental quantitative bioimaging of animal tissue using LA-ICP-TOFMS

“…Both materials can be spiked with the elements of interest at different concentration levels, providing multi-point calibration curves, and can be frozen and sliced to the same thickness as the material to be imaged, to provide direct comparison. [35][36][37][38] Over the past few years, calibration with spiked gelatin presented as either cryosections [39][40][41][42] or droplets, deposited manually, 43,44 in microarrays 45 or using a microspotter 27,28 or a bioprinter, 30 has largely replaced matrix-matched calibration with spiked homogenised tissue in LA-ICP-MS bioimaging. Despite the wide use of gelatin standards, quantication using gelatin cryosections has not yet been studied systematically and applied to single-shot high-resolution imaging.…”

“…Over the past few years, calibration with spiked gelatin presented as either cryosections 39–42 or droplets, deposited manually, 43,44 in microarrays 45 or using a microspotter 27,28 or a bioprinter, 30 has largely replaced matrix-matched calibration with spiked homogenised tissue in LA-ICP-MS bioimaging. Despite the wide use of gelatin standards, quantification using gelatin cryosections has not yet been studied systematically and applied to single-shot high-resolution imaging.…”