Distribution of cholesterol in the brain tissue as an example of TOF-SIMS analysis

TOF-SIMS is popular in biological sciences due to its ability to investigate the spatial distribution of molecules in tissue sections and other biological samples with a very high spatial resolution. Here we present an example of a strategy that determines the molecular distribution of cholesterol on the surface of a tissue section. In this chapter several sample preparation considerations for TOF-SIMS analysis are presented. Additionally, the influence of different sample coating methods and technical obstacles, which may appeared during analysis, will be discussed.