B. Gilbert ¹, L. Perfetti ¹, R. Hansen ², D. Mercanti ³, M. T. Ciotti ³, P. Casalbore ³, R. Andres ⁴, P. Perfetti ⁵, G. Margaritondo ¹ and Gelsomina De Stasio ^5,6

¹ Institut de Physique Appliquée, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale, PH-Ecublens, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland, ² Synchrotron Radiation Center, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Stoughton WI 53589, USA, ³ Istituto di Neurobiologia del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Viale Marx 15, 00137 Roma, Italy, ⁴ Paul Scherrer Institut, CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland, ⁵ Istituto di Struttura della Materia del CNR, Via Fosso del Cavaliere, Roma, Italy, ⁶ University of Wisconsin - Madison, Department of Physics, Madison WI 53706, USA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract

2. Introduction

3. Materials and methods

3.1. UV/ozone oven
3.2. Total Organic Carbon (TOC) analysis
3.3. Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-AES)
3.4. Spectromicroscopy with MEPHISTO
3.5. Visible Light Microscopy
3.6. Sample Preparation

3.6.1. Human glioblastoma tissue from patients administered with BSH prior to surgery, part of European collaboration on Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) for cancer
3.6.2. Human meningioma tissue from patients administered gadolinium-based MRI contrast enhancement agents for the novel anti-cancer modality Gadolinium Neutron Capture Therapy (Gd-NCT)
3.6.3. Cultured human glioblastoma cells for in vitro studies of trial compound uptake

4. Results and discussion

5. Conclusions

6. Acknowledgements

7. References

1. ABSTRACT

UV/ozone ashing of thin tissue sections and cell cultures is a simple technique to enhance relative elemental concentrations, while maintaining their spatial location at the sub-micron level. This approach may enhance the capability of spatially resolved analysis techniques to detect the distribution of trace elements in biological matrices. We present results from light microscopy and x-ray spectromicroscopy studies of tissues and cells demonstrating that the micro-structure is very well conserved. We show the signal enhancement resulting from the removal of carbon, which allows otherwise undetectable gadolinium to be mapped in cancer tissue for a novel neutron capture therapy.