Metals play an essential role in biological systems and are required as structural or catalytic co-factors in many proteins. Disruption of the homeostatic control and/or spatial distributions of metals can lead to disease. Imaging technologies have been developed to visualize elemental distributions across a biological sample. Measurement of elemental distributions by imaging mass spectrometry and imaging X-ray fluorescence are increasingly employed with technologies that can assess histological features and molecular compositions. Data from several modalities can be interrogated as multimodal images to correlate morphological, elemental, and molecular properties. Elemental and molecular distributions have also been axially resolved to achieve three-dimensional volumes, dramatically increasing the biological information. In this review, we provide an overview of recent developments in the field of metal imaging with an emphasis on multimodal studies in two and three dimensions. We specifically highlight studies that present technological advancements and biological applications of how metal homeostasis affects human health.

中文翻译：

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用于研究生物系统中金属的集成分子成像技术：简要回顾。


金属在生物系统中发挥着重要作用，并且是许多蛋白质中的结构或催化辅助因子。金属的稳态控制和/或空间分布的破坏可能导致疾病。成像技术已被开发用于可视化生物样品中的元素分布。通过成像质谱和成像 X 射线荧光测量元素分布越来越多地应用于可评估组织学特征和分子组成的技术。来自多种模态的数据可以作为多模态图像进行询问，以关联形态、元素和分子特性。元素和分子分布也已被轴向解析以实现三维体积，从而极大地增加了生物信息。在这篇综述中，我们概述了金属成像领域的最新发展，重点是二维和三维的多模态研究。我们特别重点介绍了金属稳态如何影响人类健康的技术进步和生物应用的研究。