Light microscopical morphometry of prolactin secreting adenomas under treatment with dopamine agonists

In order to study the light microscopical alterations of pituitary tumours under dopamine agonist treatment, three groups of a total of 18 large or small cell chromophobe adenomas were analysed by light microscopical, immunohistological and morphometrical methods. They were all removed by transsphenoidal surgery. 6 of them were treated preoperatively with dopamine agonists, bromocriptine andlor lisuride, for various periods of time. 8 adenomas remained preoperatively untreated. 4 additional untreated tumors were small cell inactive adenomas for comparison. One case was excluded from the final evaluation of the data because it appeared to be a typical non-responder, clinically as well as histologically. Immunohistological positivity for prolactin was to be found in all cases in various degrees. Clinically active adenomas contained many prolactin positive cells, whereas in inactive adenomas only scattered cells were prolactin positive. The morphometric analysis revealed a reduction of the cytoplasmic area in a statistically significant degree in the group of adenomas under treatment, which explains adequately the shrinkage of the entire adenoma and the reduction of prolactin plasma levels. The morphometric data of treated adenomas resembled those of untreated inactive adenomas

Scaling down the bioimaging of metals by laser microdissection inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LMD-ICP-MS)

Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has been established as a powerful quantitative elemental imaging technique in routine mode for biological tissue with a spatial resolution of 12-160 mu m. Several applications necessitate an improved spatial resolution of LA-ICP-MS at the low micrometre scale and below. To achieve the improvement of spatial resolution of LA-ICP-MS we created a new experimental arrangement by coupling a laser microdissection system (LMD) used for laser ablation of tissue with a sensitive quadrupole-based inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer for the subsequent analysis of ablated material. A flat laser ablation chamber made of glass was inserted into the LMD, fitted to the microscope slide with the specimen. The biological tissue fixed on the glass slide was ablated using the focused solid-state Nd:YAG laser of the LMD. The laser ablated material was transported by argon as carrier gas into the inductively coupled plasma of the mass spectrometer and analysed according to the mass-to-charge ratio. Using this novel LMD-ICP-MS arrangement, in initial experiments ion signals of 63Cu* and 65Cte were measured from a 30-p.m-thick cryosection impregnated with a droplet of a Cu solution. A spatial resolution of about 3 pm was obtained using the modified LMD system coupled to the ICP-MS. Laser-induced mass spectrometric measurements of metal distributions can be performed together with simultaneous inspection of the tissue section via the microscope of the LMD and be combined with other modalities of the LMD system. In future, a more powerful laser in the LMD apparatus will allow ablation down to the sub-micrometre scale to study the elemental distribution in small tissue sections. (C) 2010 Elsevier By. All rights reserved

Interaktiver grafischer Arbeitsplatz im Strassenentwurf; Kriterien zur Beurteilung von Hard- und Software fuer einen interaktiven grafischen Arbeitsplatz im Strassenentwurf

TIB: ZA 4681(439)+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman