Element array by scanning X-ray fluorescence microscopy after cis-diamminedichloro-platinum(II) treatment.

Minerals are important for cellular functions, such as transcription and enzyme activity, and are also involved in the metabolism of anticancer chemotherapeutic compounds. Profiling of intracellular elements in individual cells could help in understanding the mechanism of drug resistance in tumors and possibly provide a new strategy of anticancer chemotherapy. Using a recently developed technique of scanning X-ray fluorescence microscopy (SXFM), we analyzed intracellular elements after treatment with cis-diamminedichloro-platinum(II) (CDDP), a platinum-based anticancer agent.

Image quality improvement in a hard X-ray projection microscope using total reflection mirror optics.

A new figure correction method has been applied in order to fabricate an elliptical mirror to realize a one-dimensionally diverging X-ray beam having high image quality. Mutual relations between figure errors and intensity uniformities of diverging X-ray beams have also been investigated using a wave-optical simulator and indicate that figure errors in relatively short spatial wavelength ranges lead to high-contrast interference fringes. By using a microstitching interferometer and elastic emission machining, figure correction of an elliptical mirror with a lateral resolution close to 0.