Australian Synchrotron, 800 Blackburn Road, Clayton, Victoria 3168, Australia.
Curr Opin Struct Biol. 2010 Oct;20(5):606-14. doi: 10.1016/j.sbi.2010.09.002. Epub 2010 Oct 9.
Hard X-ray fluorescence microscopy is well-suited to in-situ investigations of trace metal distributions within whole, unstained, biological tissue, with sub-parts-per-million detection achievable in whole cells. The high penetration of X-rays indicates the use of X-ray fluorescence tomography for structural visualization, and recent measurements have realised sub-500-nm tomography on a 10-μm cell. Limitations of present approaches impact the duration of an experiment and imaging fidelity. Developments in X-ray resolution, detector speed, cryogenic environments, and the incorporation of auxiliary signals are being pursued within the synchrotron community. Several complementary approaches to X-ray fluorescence tomography will be routinely available to the biologist in the near future. We discuss these approaches and review applications of biological relevance.
硬 X 射线荧光显微镜非常适合原位研究未经染色的完整生物组织中痕量金属的分布，在整个细胞中可实现亚 ppm 级别的检测。X 射线的高穿透性表明可以使用 X 射线荧光层析成像进行结构可视化，最近的测量已经实现了对 10μm 细胞的亚 500nm 层析成像。目前方法的局限性影响了实验的持续时间和成像保真度。在同步加速器社区中，正在努力提高 X 射线分辨率、探测器速度、低温环境，并结合辅助信号。在不久的将来，生物学家将可以常规使用几种互补的 X 射线荧光层析成像方法。我们将讨论这些方法，并回顾其在生物学方面的应用。
