Austinc Christine, Niedzwiecki Megan M, Arora Manish
Elemental Bio-imaging Facility, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, New South Wales, Australia.
Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
Curr Opin Pediatr. 2016 Apr;28(2):216-220. doi: 10.1097/MOP.0000000000000328.
Metals play major roles in children's health and are associated with negative health outcomes via deficiency, overload, or toxicity. Constantly evolving analytical technology can provide new insight into how metal metabolism and exposure biology are intertwined in a range of biological matrices.
Exposure can occur prenatally as many metals cross the placental barrier. The placenta is permeable to many metal species, some through tightly regulated transporters, and others because of a limited capacity for detoxification. Postbirth, metal exposure continues to exert long-term health effects, ranging from exposure to exogenous heavy metals, such as lead, to overload of otherwise essential metals, including manganese. Increasing evidence supports the existence of critical developmental windows when susceptibility to toxicants and nutritional deficiencies is highest. Elemental imaging technology provides microspatial information on metal uptake and retention across tissue architecture, which provides important insights into exposure and biologic response.
Imaging the spatial distribution of elements, both essential and toxic, provides information that bulk measures cannot, including cell-specific distributions and timing of exposure.
金属在儿童健康中发挥着重要作用，可通过缺乏、过量或毒性导致不良健康后果。不断发展的分析技术能够为金属代谢与暴露生物学在一系列生物基质中的相互关系提供新的见解。
由于许多金属可穿过胎盘屏障，因此胎儿在出生前就可能接触到金属。胎盘对多种金属具有通透性，有些金属是通过严格调控的转运蛋白，而其他金属则是因为解毒能力有限。出生后，金属暴露继续对健康产生长期影响，范围从接触外源重金属（如铅）到体内必需金属（如锰）过载。越来越多的证据支持关键发育窗口的存在，在此期间对毒物和营养缺乏的易感性最高。元素成像技术可提供有关金属在组织结构中摄取和留存的微观空间信息，这为暴露和生物学反应提供了重要见解。
对必需元素和有毒元素的空间分布进行成像，可提供总量测量无法提供的信息，包括细胞特异性分布和暴露时间。
