CO(III)EDTA AS EXTRACELLULAR MARKER IN MU-PIXE-ANALYSIS OF RAT CARDIOMYOCYTES

In previous studies no clear difference was found between the intra- a nd extra-cellular compartment in nuclear microprobe elemental distribu tion maps of freeze-dried cryo sections of heart tissue. Probably due to artefacts during the preparation of these samples, the intra-cellul ar and the extra-cellular content of elements are mixed up. In this ar ticle a method, using NaCo(III)EDTA as an extra-cellular marker, was a pplied to deconvolute the total ion content in an extra- and intra-cel lular contribution, This method was both applied to normoxic heart tis sue and low-flow ischemic heart tissue. Intra-cellular ion concentrati ons calculated from the corrected ion contents of the normoxic tissue agrees well with literature values. Moreover a clear elevation of the intra-cellular sodium and chlorine concentration was found in low-flow ischemic tissue. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.