Advantages of the scanning ion microscopy for mapping halogen corticoids in normal and transformed cells in culture

Abstract

The intra-cellular distribution of eight halogen glucocorticoids was investigated by ion microscopy in two cellular varieties of cultured non-cancer cells (fibroblast 3T3) and cancer cells (human breast tumor cells MCF-7). Two types of ion microscopy helped to determine this distribution, a direct imaging ion microscope (SMI 300) with low spatial resolution, and a scanning ion microscope (IMS4F), featuring high resolution, serving to obtain maps representing the intra-cellular distribution of the fluorine elements and drugs present in these monolayer cultured cells. The fluorine images representative of the drugs containing fluorine showed that these drugs are essentially concentrated in the cell nuclei. In these nuclei, the distribution of these drugs is different from that of heterochromatin and of the nucleolus.

Secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) microscopy: A new tool for pharmacological studies in humans

“…It is a well-known fact that the penetration of cytotoxic agents in the cells of neoplastic tissue is critical for their activity although the in vivo distribution between normal and tumor cells remains enigmatic. Most of the results reported by other groups were obtained on isolated cells cultured on gold holders and observed directly without embedding (Adovelande et al, 1994;Berry et al, 1994;Hindie et al, 1989Hindie et al, , 1992. However, section flatness is not present when isolated cells are observed directly without embedding.…”