Oral Presentation 24th Australian Conference on Microscopy and Microanalysis 2016

High resolution imaging of trace elements and isotopes by the NanoSIMS and complementary techniques (#10)

Haibo Jiang 1 , Matt Kilburn 1 , Max Ryndnov 2 , Chris Grovenor 3 , Stephen Young 4 , Paul Guagliardo 1
  1. Centre for Microscopy, Characterisation and Analysis, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  2. National Physical Laboratory, Teddington, Choose a County, United Kingdom
  3. Department of Materials, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
  4. Department of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, Los angeles, United States

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is a technique, which can be used to obtain chemical distributions from both the surfaces and 3D volumes of a large number of different types of sample. The NanoSIMS 50 instrument is a state-of-the-art high-resolution SIMS instrument, designed to improve spatial resolution without losing the sensitivity for dilute or trace analytes. The ability of the NanoSIMS to detect trace elements and isotopes with up to 50 nm lateral resolution has provided great potential on molecular imaging applications.

The NanoSIMS enables an alternative strategy for molecular imaging by stable isotopic labeling. Stable isotope labeled molecules can be tracked and quantified in subcellular structures, and they behave almost the same to natural molecules. They are also safe for long-term experiments on animals, even humans. This presentation will report two NanoSIMS applications on molecular imaging with stable isotopic labelling and complementary techniques: (1) visualisation lipid transport through capillary endothelial cells by correlative NanoSIMS and Electron Microscopy analysis [1, 2]; and (2) imaging of interactions between antimicrobial peptides and lipid membranes by correlative NanoSIMS and Atomic Force Microscopy analysis [3]. We will also discuss recent developments of the NanoSIMS improving its ability on detecting trace metal elements, which can be used for direct high-resolution imaging of physiological metals and metal-tagged probes.  

  1. Goulbourne, C. N., P. Gin, A. Tatar, C. Nobumori, A. Hoenger, H. Jiang, C. R. Grovenor, O. Adeyo, J. D. Esko and I. J. Goldberg (2014). "The GPIHBP1–LPL complex is responsible for the margination of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in capillaries." Cell metabolism 19(5): 849-860.
  2. Jiang, H., C. N. Goulbourne, A. Tatar, K. Turlo, D. Wu, A. P. Beigneux, C. R. Grovenor, L. G. Fong and S. G. Young (2014). "High-resolution imaging of dietary lipids in cells and tissues by NanoSIMS analysis." Journal of lipid research 55(10): 2156-2166.
  3. Rakowska, P. D., H. B. Jiang, S. Ray, A. Pyne, B. Lamarre, M. Carr, P. J. Judge, J. Ravi, U. I. M. Gerling, B. Koksch, G. J. Martyna, B. W. Hoogenboom, A. Watts, J. Crain, C. R. M. Grovenor and M. G. Ryadnov (2013). "Nanoscale imaging reveals laterally expanding antimicrobial pores in lipid bilayers." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 110(22): 8918-8923.