A standard sample preparation and calibration procedure for imaging zinc and magnesium in rats' brain tissue by laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-time of flight-mass spectrometry

Abstract

A calibration procedure consists of several steps, each of which has a significant impact on the final result of the analysis. The preparation of standard samples for analytical calibration is a far more important step in the analytical procedure than it might seem. In this paper, we have discussed a new, innovatory calibration procedure, which is itself a development of one previously published by us concerning a calibration strategy in the determination of trace elements in rat brain tissues by the laser ablation inductively coupled plasma time of flight mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-TOF-MS) method. Moreover, the article has described an important step in the preparation of standard samples, which is both an innovation and exclusive to this work. The linearity of calibration function analysis is fully acceptable (for zinc R = 0.944 and for magnesium R = 0.989), and the applied calibration method, the conventional extrapolative method (CEM), known more generally as the “standard addition method”, makes it possible to avoid interferents from the sample matrix. The results show the usefulness of the procedure developed in the presented analytical problem related to the analysis of solid biological samples. The developed research methodology enabled the preparation of distribution maps of zinc and magnesium in the rat's hippocampus, which is a frontier providing unique research in the pathophysiology of a rat brain.