Three-dimensional portrait of a water flea in metal

Metallomics – the study of trace amounts of metals in living organisms – is a dynamically developing field of biochemistry, mainly due to the fact that metal ions play a key role in many biological processes. Until now, most of the methods used for the analysis of metals in biological samples are destructive and do not allow determining the distribution of metals in biological systems.

Laszlo Vincze from the University of Ghent (Belgium) and colleagues from Belgium, Hungary and Germany used X-ray radiation to nondestructively determine the location of metal ions in biological samples, including living systems. (In one of the many drawings given in article B. De Samber et al. A combination of synchrotron and laboratory X-ray techniques for studying tissue-specific trace level metal distributions in Daphnia magna // JAAS, 2008) – distribution of compounds of three metals in the body of daphnia).

The new method is a combination of synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (synchrotron radiation x-ray fluorescence) and X-ray microtomography (x-ray absorption microtomography). This combination allowed the Winch to build 2D and 3D images of the distribution of metals, using a living organism directly as an object of study.

According to Vince, the advantages of the new method are that the high permeability of X-rays allows you to study the sample in all three dimensions without destroying it, which cannot be achieved using traditional analytical methods. The new method has a high sensitivity and allows you to monitor the distribution of metals with an accuracy of micro- or even nanometers.

Source: 3D biological metal detection – Royal Society of Chemistry, 08 May 2008

Portal "Eternal youth" www.vechnayamolodost.ru according to the materials ChemPort.Ru12.05.2008