Study of the trace element content in human cataractous lenses by instrumental neutron activation analysis

Cataract is a very common disease of the eye lens known since ancient times. Different mechanisms are responsible for the biogenesis of cataract but most scientists agree with the theory that cataract formation can be attributed to metabolism disorders in the lens. Instrumental neutron activation analysis has been applied in this work for the determination of the following trace elements: antimony, cobalt, iron, rubidium, selenium and zinc in human lenses with mature cataract. The results are statistically treated and correlated with age and sex of patients. Based on these findings, the concentration of elements studied does not have any correlation with the age and/or sex of the patients, i.e. when the lens becomes totally opaque. © 1989 Akadémiai Kiadó

The localisation and micro-mapping of copper and other trace elements in breast tumours using a synchrotron micro-XRF system

Trace elements have critical roles in cancer biology. The quantity and distribution of the elements Cl, Ca, K, P, S, Ti, Fe, Cu and Zn in samples of primary breast cancer have been assessed. The samples were formalin fixed tissue specimens formatted as microarrays of cores 1.0 mm diameter and 10 microm thick each. The data were obtained using a synchrotron X-ray fluorescence microprobe system. The spatial resolution of elemental maps was approximately 20 microm. Maps were compared with light transmission images of the samples and then the images were stained for cancer. The synchrotron system proved successful in producing data that could be mapped into high-resolution images where clear structure could be identified. Correlation of these distributions with the concentrations of cancer cells was achieved in some samples