Elemental distribution and sample integrity comparison of freeze-dried and frozen-hydrated biological tissue samples with nuclear microprobe

In the presented work, a standard micro-PIXE configuration for tissue mapping at JSI was used with five detection systems operating in parallel, with proton beam cross section of 1.0 × 1.0 μm2 and a beam current of 100 pA. The comparison of the resulting elemental distributions measured at the biological tissue prepared in the frozen-hydrated and in the freeze-dried state revealed differences in elemental distribution of particular elements at the cellular level due to the morphology alteration in particular tissue compartments induced either by water removal in the lyophilisation process or by unsatisfactory preparation of samples for cutting and mounting during the shock-freezing phase of sample preparation.