The authors declare no conflict of interest. This work was supported in part by JSPS KAKENHI Numbers 25293326
and 25670658 (TK), 26861208 (KO), 25893228 (ST), 25861339 (AM) and a grant-in-aid from the Support Project for the Formation of a Strategic Center in a Private University from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (S1311002 to TK). “
“Human tissues contain many kinds of minerals and trace essential elements that as catalytic or structural components of large biochemical molecules. Therefore, analysis of the quantification, distribution, and chemical state of trace essential elements could provide useful information, for example, in metabolism analysis. In addition,
click here skin, respiratory, and digestive mucosa are sometimes exposed to various foreign objects. Especially, the oral mucosa comes into contact and is exposed to dietary and various restorative materials, for example, eroded ions or debris generated from metallic restorations. Additionally, the respiratory mucosa comes into contact with inhaled and entrapped airborne debris. These foreign objects sometimes result in various lesions; therefore, the analysis of foreign objects in tissues is important in determining the diagnosis. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the heavy elements in biological, medical, and environmental specimens are performed using various methods, and are tabulated in Table BIBW2992 order 1. Atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS) and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (or mass spectroscopy) (ICP-AES, MS) are the most popular methods for trace element analysis. These methods have high sensitivity (ppm–ppb); Edoxaban however, they require a liquid specimen. Therefore, solid specimens (e.g., biological and medical tissues) should be solubilized, for example, with an acid treatment. The solubilization process decreases the concentrations of the target elements; thus, the detection of trace elements becomes more difficult. In addition, information
about the distribution and chemical state of trace elements is lost during the solubilization process. Furthermore, biomedical specimens are rare and restricted in amount; therefore, elemental analysis should be performed in a non-destructive manner. Microanalysis using an electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and energy-dispersed spectroscopy (EDS) are also commonly used to analyze elemental information (elemental composition and distribution information). These methods provide both microscopic imaging and elemental information using emitted characteristic X-rays from the observed area. Fig. 1 shows the mechanism of characteristic X-ray generation. The bombardment of high-energy electrons and high-energy X-rays strikes a bound electron in a target atom.