Quantitative analysis of multiple elements in healthy and remodeled epithelium from human upper airway mucosa using nuclear microscopy

Elements are vital in airway mucosal physiology and pathology, but their distribution and levels in the mucosa remain unclear. This study uses the state-of-the-art nuclear microscopy facility to map and quantify multiple elements in the histology sections of nasal mucosa from patients with nasal polyps or inverted papilloma. Our results demonstrate that P and Ca are the most abundant elements in mucosa and their distinct difference between epithelial and subepithelial regions; more importantly, our results reveal decreased amounts of Cu and Zn in the remodeled epithelium as compared to the normal epithelium. These findings suggest that Cu and Zn may be beneficial targets to regulate aberrant epithelial remodeling in airway inflammation.