Altered Elemental Distribution in Male Rat Brain Tissue as a Predictor of Glioblastoma Multiforme Growth : Studies Using SR-XRF Microscopy

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a particularly malignant primary brain tumor. Despite enormous advances in the surgical treatment of cancer, radio- and chemotherapy, the average survival of patients suffering from this cancer does not usually exceed several months. For obvious ethical reasons, the search and testing of the new drugs and therapies of GBM cannot be carried out on humans, and for this purpose, animal models of the disease are most often used. However, to assess the efficacy and safety of the therapy basing on these models, a deep knowledge of the pathological changes associated with tumor development in the animal brain is necessary. Therefore, as part of our study, the synchrotron radiation-based X-ray fluorescence microscopy was applied for multi-elemental micro-imaging of the rat brain in which glioblastoma develops. Elemental changes occurring in animals after the implantation of two human glioma cell lines as well as the cells taken directly from a patient suffering from GBM were compared. Both the extent and intensity of elemental changes strongly correlated with the regions of glioma growth. The obtained results showed that the observation of elemental anomalies accompanying tumor development within an animal’s brain might facilitate our understanding of the pathogenesis and progress of GBM and also determine potential biomarkers of its extension. The tumors appearing in a rat’s brain were characterized by an increased accumulation of Fe and Se, whilst the tissue directly surrounding the tumor presented a higher accumulation of Cu. Furthermore, the results of the study allow us to consider Se as a potential elemental marker of GBM progression

Altered elemental distribution in male rat brain tissue as a predictor of glioblastoma multiforme growth : studies using SR-XRF microscopy

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a particularly malignant primary brain tumor. Despite enormous advances in the surgical treatment of cancer, radio- and chemotherapy, the average survival of patients suffering from this cancer does not usually exceed several months. For obvious ethical reasons, the search and testing of the new drugs and therapies of GBM cannot be carried out on humans, and for this purpose, animal models of the disease are most often used. However, to assess the efficacy and safety of the therapy basing on these models, a deep knowledge of the pathological changes associated with tumor development in the animal brain is necessary. Therefore, as part of our study, the synchrotron radiation-based X-ray fluorescence microscopy was applied for multi-elemental micro-imaging of the rat brain in which glioblastoma develops. Elemental changes occurring in animals after the implantation of two human glioma cell lines as well as the cells taken directly from a patient suffering from GBM were compared. Both the extent and intensity of elemental changes strongly correlated with the regions of glioma growth. The obtained results showed that the observation of elemental anomalies accompanying tumor development within an animal's brain might facilitate our understanding of the pathogenesis and progress of GBM and also determine potential biomarkers of its extension. The tumors appearing in a rat's brain were characterized by an increased accumulation of Fe and Se, whilst the tissue directly surrounding the tumor presented a higher accumulation of Cu. Furthermore, the results of the study allow us to consider Se as a potential elemental marker of GBM progression

The assessment of the usability of selected instrumental techniques for the elemental analysis of biomedical samples

The fundamental role of major, minor and trace elements in different physiological and pathological processes occurring in living organism makes that elemental analysis of biomedical samples becomes more and more popular issue. The most often used tools for analysis of the elemental composition of biological samples include Flame and Graphite Furnace Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (F-AAS and GF-AAS), Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). Each of these techniques has many advantages and limitations that should be considered in the first stage of planning the measurement procedure. Their reliability can be checked in the validation process and the precision, trueness and detection limits of elements belong to the most frequently determined validation parameters. The main purpose of this paper was the discussion of selected instrumental techniques (F-AAS, GF-AAS, ICP-OES and ICP-MS) in term of the achieved validation parameters and the usefulness in the analysis of biological samples. The focus in the detailed literature studies was also put on the methods of preparation of the biomedical samples. What is more based on the own data the usefulness of the total reflection X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy for the elemental analysis of animal tissues was examined. The detection limits of elements, precision and trueness for the technique were determined and compared with the literature data concerning other of the discussed techniques of elemental analysis. Reassuming, the following paper is to serve as a guide and comprehensive source of information concerning the validation parameters achievable in different instrumental techniques used for the elemental analysis of biomedical samples

The influence of IONPs core size on their biocompatibility and activity in in vitro cellular models

Although the key factor affecting the biocompatibility of IONPs is the core size, there is a lack of regular investigation concerning the impact of the parameter on the toxicity of these nanomaterials. Therefore, such studies were carried out in this paper. Their purpose was to compare the influence of PEG-coated-magnetite NPs with the core of 5, 10 and 30 nm on six carefully selected cell lines. The proliferation rate, viability, metabolic activity, migration activity, ROS levels and cytoskeleton architecture of cells have been evaluated for specified incubation periods. These were 24 and 72-h long incubations with IONPs administered in two doses: 5 and 25 mu g Fe/ml. A decrease in viability was observed after exposure to the tested NPs for all the analyzed cell lines. This effect was not connected with core diameter but depended on the exposure time to the nanomaterials. IONPs increased not only the proliferation rate of macrophages-being phagocytic cells-but also, under certain conditions stimulated tumor cell divisions. Most likely, the increase in proliferation rate of macrophages contributed to the changes in the architecture of their cytoskeleton. The growth in the level of ROS in cells had been induced mainly by the smallest NPs. This effect was observed for HEK293T cells and two cancerous lines: U87MG (at both doses tested) and T98G (only for the higher dose). This requires further study concerning both potential toxicity of such IONPs to the kidneys and assessing their therapeutic potential in the treatment of glioblastoma multiforme