Quantitative Elemental Bioimaging Protocol Using Femtosecond-Laser Ablation-ICP-Mass Spectrometry Coupled with Glass Standard Reference Material

We have developed new analytical technique for the quantitative elemental imaging for trace elements using a femtosecond-laser ablation-ICP-mass spectrometry (fs-LA-ICP-MS). With the laser ablation under the finely controlled fluence, sliced alveolar tissue samples (thickness 1 μm), placed on the glass slide, were totally ablated, and the laser-induced sample aerosols were introduced into the ICP. Hence, no laser ablation was achieved on the glass substrate because the laser fluence was lower than the energy threshold for the laser ablation phenomena of glass materials. Under the total ablation conditions, the ablated volume of the sample could be well defined, and therefore, concentrations of the analytes can be calibrated based on the signal intensity data and the volume of the sample and glass standard reference material. Combination of the LA-ICP-MS technique and the preferential and total ablation achieved by the soft ablation protocol can become a powerful method for studying the trace elements and pharmacokinetics containing metal elements through the quantitative imaging. Analytical spatial resolution of the imaging analysis as well as the detection limit of the present analytical technique will be discussed in this study.