Simultaneous Comparison of Two Techniques For X-Ray Microanalysis of Tissue Sections

Abstract

Major differences in elemental and water content in cells of rat renal papillae in antidiuresis have been reported using x-ray microanalysis by us and by Beck et al. Various reasons for these reported differences have been suggested, including the analytical algorithm used, cryosectioning at “warmer” temperatures leading to elemental displacement, and biological differences. The purpose of these studies is to determine the reasons for these reported differences by comparing both our methods for x-ray analysis of frozen hydrated tissue sections and the method of Beck et al. simultaneously on the same tissue. Our methodology uses fully hydrated tissue sections without external standards, while Beck et al. uses frozen dried cryosections with an albumin external standard (Ringer's solution in 20% albumin). In these studies two anatomical areas of the rat kidney were subjected to analysis using both our methods and theirs simultaneously: 1) the proximal tubule cell (PTC) from rat renal cortex, and 2) the antidiuretic papilla prepared according to Beck et al.