Simultaneous structural and elemental nano-imaging of human brain tissue

Sian Genoud, Michael W. M. Jones, Benjamin Guy Trist, Junjing Deng, Si Chen, Dominic James Hare, Kay L. Double

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Citations (Scopus)
46 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Examining chemical and structural characteristics of micro-features in complex tissue matrices is essential for understanding biological systems. Advances in multimodal chemical and structural imaging using synchrotron radiation have overcome many issues in correlative imaging, enabling the characterization of distinct microfeatures at nanoscale resolution in ex vivo tissues. We present a nanoscale imaging method that pairs X-ray ptychography and X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM) to simultaneously examine structural features and quantify elemental content of microfeatures in complex ex vivo tissues. We examined the neuropathological microfeatures Lewy bodies, aggregations of superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) and neuromelanin in human post-mortem Parkinson's disease tissue. Although biometals play essential roles in normal neuronal biochemistry, their dyshomeostasis is implicated in Parkinson's disease aetiology. Here we show that Lewy bodies and SOD1 aggregates have distinct elemental fingerprints yet are similar in structure, whilst neuromelanin exhibits different elemental composition and a distinct, disordered structure. The unique approach we describe is applicable to the structural and chemical characterization of a wide range of complex biological tissues at previously unprecedented levels of detail.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8919-8927
Number of pages9
JournalChemical Science
Volume11
Issue number33
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Aug 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Royal Society of Chemistry 2020. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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