Multimodal Imaging of Metals in a Retinal Degeneration Model to Inform on Ocular Disease

The metallome has been involved in the pathological investigation into ocular tissue for decades; however, as technologies advance, more information can be ascertained from individual tissue sections that were not previously possible. Herein, a demonstration of complementary techniques has been utilized to describe the distribution and concentrations of essential metals in both wildtype (WT) and rhodopsin (Rho-/-) ocular tissues. The multimodal approach described is an example of complementary datasets that can be produced when employing a multifaceted analytical approach. Heterogenous distributions of copper and zinc were observable within both WT and Rho-/- tissue by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), and the distributions of further trace elements notoriously problematic for ICP-MS analysis (phosphorous, Sulfur, chlorine, potassium, calcium, iron, and aluminum) were analysed by particle-induced X-ray emission (PIXE).