| AVS 60th International Symposium and Exhibition | |
| Biomaterial Interfaces | Wednesday Sessions |
| Session BI+AI+AS+BA+IA+NL+NS+SP-WeA |
| Session: | Characterization of Biointerfaces |
| Presenter: | L.J. Gamble, University of Washington |
| Authors: | L.J. Gamble, University of Washington M. Robinson, University of Washington F. Morrish, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center D. Hockenbery, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center |
| Correspondent: | Click to Email |
Tumor metabolism plays a large role in cancer onset and progression, and its causes and effects are under intense scrutiny. Recently, the lipid metabolism in tumors has been looked at as a factor in tumor type and treatment. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) is well suited for analysis of the lipid distribution in tumors. In this study, frozen breast cancer tissue specimens from patients were cut using a cryomicrotome at a thickness of 4μm and deposited on silicon wafers. Serial tissue slices were stained with hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) and were used to determine from which structures the various chemical signatures originated. SIMS tissue sample data were acquired on an IONTOF TOF.SIMS V using Bi3+ in both high mass and high spatial resolution modes on both ER+ and ER- human breast tumor tissue samples. Mass fragments spectra from multiple spots and tissue slices for the ER+ and ER- tissue samples can be separated from one another using PCA within a 95% confidence interval. Key differences between tissue types are abundance of cholesterol and triacylglycerides/diacylglycerides (TAGs/DAGs). Imaging ToF-SIMS of theses samples show variances for different fatty acids (saturated versus unsaturated) that correlate with model studies using similar cancer cell types.