The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is an ideal model for whole animal studies of lipid metabolism and lipid-related disease. In this work, infrared matrix-assisted laser desorption electrospray ionization (IR-MALDESI) mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) was applied for direct visualization of lipid and metabolite distributions across various organs in whole-body zebrafish tissue sections. Detailed methods for overcoming the challenges of cryosectioning adult male zebrafish for MSI and complementary histological imaging are described. Representative two-dimensional ion maps demonstrated organ specific localization of lipid analytes allowing for visualization of areas of interest including the brain, liver, intestines, and skeletal muscle. A high resolving power mass spectrometer was utilized for accurate mass measurements, which permitted the use of open-source, web-based tools for MS1 annotations including METASPACE and METLIN. Whole-body MSI with IR-MALDESI allowed for broad lipid coverage with high spatial resolution, illustrating the potential of this technique for studying lipid-related diseases using zebrafish as a model organism.
Keywords: IR-MALDESI; cryosectioning; lipids; mass spectrometry imaging; zebrafish.