Elemental profiling of adrenal adenomas in solid tissue and blood samples by ICP-MS and ICP-OES

Abstract

The elemental composition of control and pathological adrenal tissues remains to be resolved. This study aimed to provide an initial insight into the amounts of micro- (Mn, Co, Cu, Zn, As, Se, Cd, Pb, U) and macroelements (Na, K, Mg, Ca) in healthy adrenal tissue (HAT) and adenomatous adrenal tissue (AAT) samples collected from patients with adrenal adenoma (AA) using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The results were accompanied by a comparative determination of the same elements in healthy blood (HB) and adenomatous blood (AB) samples. This is the first study that has provided in-depth knowledge of the baseline composition of the clinically important elements of HAT samples. Furthermore, this study showed elementary changes in AA patients. The AATs had significantly higher amounts of Mn, Cu, Zn, Se, Pb, K, and Mg compared to the HATs. The opposite results were obtained for the same elements in the AB samples, indicating that the benign adrenal masses could have the ability to withdraw these elements from circulation. These results were supplemented by principal component analysis (PCA). ICP-based techniques were successfully applied to accurately provide a more comprehensive insight into the clinically important elements in the solid tissue and blood samples. The results of this study are a deep-dive into the likely future of clinical studies. Moreover, target elements should be taken into consideration as novel initiating and/or modifying factors of AA, after further research, this would include the analysis of a larger number of samples and prospective follow-up of the patient’s elemental profile.