A novel approach to the identification and quantitative elemental analysis of amyloid deposits--insights into the pathology of Alzheimer's disease.

There is considerable interest in the role of metals such as iron, copper, and zinc in amyloid plaque formation in Alzheimer's disease. However to convincingly establish their presence in plaques in vivo, a sensitive technique is required that is both quantitatively accurate and avoids isolation of plaques or staining/fixing brain tissue, since these processes introduce contaminants and redistribute elements within the tissue. Combining the three ion beam techniques of scanning transmission ion microscopy, Rutherford back scattering spectrometry and particle induced X-ray emission in conjunction with a high energy (MeV) proton microprobe we have imaged plaques in freeze-dried unstained brain sections from CRND-8 mice, and simultaneously quantified iron, copper, and zinc.

Nuclear microscopy: a tool for imaging elemental distribution and percutaneous absorption in vivo.

Nuclear microscopy is a technique based on a focused beam of accelerated particles that has the ability of imaging the morphology of the tissue in vivo and of producing the correspondent elemental maps, whether in major, minor, or trace concentrations. These characteristics constitute a strong advantage in studying the morphology of human skin, its elemental distributions and the permeation mechanisms of chemical compounds. In this study, nuclear microscopy techniques such as scanning transmission ion microscopy and particle induced X-ray emission were applied simultaneously, to cryopreserved human skin samples with the purpose of obtaining high-resolution images of cells and tissue morphology.

High intra-abdominal pressure enhances the penetration and antitumor effect of intraperitoneal cisplatin on experimental peritoneal carcinomatosis.

Objective: To investigate the role of increased intra-abdominal pressure (IAP) on the intratumoral accumulation and the antitumor effect of intraperitoneal cisplatin in rats with advanced peritoneal carcinomatosis. To evaluate the tolerance of IAP in pigs, as it is a large animal with a body size equivalent to humans.

Summary Background Data: To investigate if an active convection, driven by a positive IAP, increases cisplatin penetration and antitumor effectiveness in a model of advanced peritoneal carcinomatosis in rats.