Quantitative microautoradiography of arteries: comparison of radioactivity to silver.

The local concentration of silver in developed aortic transmural microautoradiographs was compared to the corresponding 125I-labeled albumin radioactivity concentration [ci(x)] in the subjacent tissue. Silver [s(x)] was measured by electron probe X-ray microanalysis (EPA) and the corresponding ci(x) by direct gamma-ray counting. The results show 1) that the relationship between volume-averaged values of radioactivity (ci) and EPA signal (s) is adequately described by ci = Ks, where K is a proportionality constant, and 2) that ci(x) measured by EPA [i.e., Ks(x)] agrees closely with ci(s) measured direcly from en face microtomy slices of corresponding unfixed tissue specimens.