Results of elemental analyses of brain and liver human tissue samples performed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry

Human tissue samples of brain and liver were obtained after min. 24 h postmortem from the Department of Forensic Medicine, University of Lublin. Tissue samples were collected from typical anatomical locations intended for histopathological examination: A—polus frontalis (frontal pole), B—gyrus precentralis (precentral gyrus), C—gyrus postcentralis (postcentral gyrus), D—cortex cingularis (gyrus cinguli cingulate gyrus), E—hippocampus (hippocampus), F—caput nuclei caudati (head of caudate nucleus), G—fasciculus longitudinalis superior cerebri (superior longitudinal fasciculus of brain, SLF), H—fasciculus longitudinalis inferior cerebri (inferior longitudinal fasciculus of brain, ILF), I—thalamus dorsalis (dorsal thalamus), J—nucleus accumbens septi (nucleus accumbens septi, NAc), K—insula (insula), L—hepar (liver). Samples were taken with the consent of the prosecutor and the Local Bioethics Committee (Medical University of Lublin, Poland, KE-0254/152/2021, approval date 24 June 2021). The study was conducted in accordance with the World Medical Association Code of Ethics, Declaration of Helsinki, for experiments involving human subjects. The samples were mineralized to remove the organic matrix using microwave minerali-zation with nitric acid (69% suprapur HNO3, Baker, Radnor, PA, USA) in the microwave mineralization system Multiwave 5000 (Anton Paar, Graz, Austria). After mineralization step, HCl (Merck, Darmstadt, Germany) was added and diluted by ultrapure water. The elemental analysis was performed using the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer Agilent 8900 ICP-MS Triple Quad (Agilent, Santa Clara, CA, USA).