A novel calibration strategy for analysis and imaging of biological thin sections by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Abstract

A novel calibration scheme for elemental analysis and imaging of biological thin sections by laser ablation ICP mass spectrometry is described. The procedure is based on spiking whole blood or blood serum with elemental standards (Sr, Gd, Pt), freezing the spiked aliquots in a customised block of CMC and sectioning by cryomicrotome. The approach is robust, convenient to implement and affords matrix matching of standards to samples in terms of chemistry and physical properties. Linear calibration and good method reproducibility was achieved with limits of detection at the ng g⁻¹ level. Application to quantitative analysis and imaging of metallodrugs (Sr, Pt based) and MRI contrast agent (Gd based) was demonstrated.