Identification and localization of nanoparticles in tissues by mass spectrometry

Abstract

To understand the potential toxicity of nanoparticles (NPs), it is necessary to evaluate their penetration in biological tissues. For that, cell imaging can be considered as an indispensable diagnosis method. We have used the NanoSIMS50 to detect particles of a few nanometres diameter unambiguously in biological tissues. Animals (Daphnia magna) or cells were exposed to NPs (titaniumdioxide, silver, silicon oxide and copper oxide). Transmission electronic microscopy (TEM) imaging was used as a complementary technique to secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) imaging. The correlation of SIMS and TEM images opens up a new way of studying the toxicological effects of NPs of interest to medicine and pharmacology.

Bridging the divide between human and environmental nanotoxicology

“…It enables elemental analysis and imaging at the subcellular level, and offers the possibility of depth profiling. NanoSIMS has been successfully employed in ecotoxicology by Slaveykova et al 27 to study uptake of copper in algal cells and by Audinot et al 28 to detect nanoparticles in tissues of Daphnia magna and human hepato cellular (HepG2) cells. As the performance of NanoSIMS is gaining popularity, its use is likely to expand into human toxicol ogy and nano medicine, for example in situations where measure ments of quantitative uptake of nanoparticles by cells and particle bio distribution in tissues are required.…”

Analytical approaches to support current understanding of exposure, uptake and distributions of engineered nanoparticles by aquatic and terrestrial organisms

“…In ecotoxicology, SIMS has recently been used to show that Ag ENPs not only enter the gut lumen of Daphnia magna, but also that they seem able to pass across the epithelial barrier and accumulate within specific organs including the ovaries where there is potential for reproductive effects (Audinot et al 2013;Georgantzopoulou et al 2013). In contrast, SIMS analysis suggests that SiO 2 and TiO 2 ENPs are probably retained within the gut lumen (Audinot et al 2013). These studies highlight both the value of the SIMS approach for detection and also a more general biological point that ENP distributions and mobility between organ compartments can be highly dependent on the composition and other characteristics of the material under study.…”

Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

“…Hereby stable isotope labelling is used in magnetic sector SIMS analysis for the exact quantification and localisation of nucleic acids, DNA molecules, amino acids, to quantify and visualise membrane lipids in single cells as well as for the of characterisation and quantification of nanomaterials for toxicological studies after cellular uptake. 129,[137][138][139][140][141] Moreover, stable-isotope labelling has significant advantages: the molecules do not decay nor do they change their 3D chemical structure and therefore influence the size of the molecule, in comparison to other labelling techniques.…”