Subcellular imaging of cell cultures and tissue for boron localization with laser-SNMS

Non-resonant laser secondary neutral mass spectrometry (NR-laser-SNMS) has been used for examining human melanoma cells grown in cell cultures and human glioblastoma xenografts grown in NMRI nude mice. Cells were incubated and mice were treated with boron-containing drugs. Ion-induced electron images were used to identify individual cells. Elemental and molecular images were obtained from the cancer cells with very high sensitivity and subcellular resolution. The measurement of the K/Na ratio demonstrated that for both cell cultures and tissue materials the preparation techniques used were appropriate for preserving the chemical and structural integrity of the living cell. The boron images show intra- and extracellular boron signals with different intensities. Molecular images show distinct features partly correlated with the cell structure. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.