Advances in MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging Single Cell and Tissues

Xiaoping Zhu; Tianyi Xu; Chen Peng; Shihua Wu

doi:10.3389/fchem.2021.782432

Advances in MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging Single Cell and Tissues

Front Chem. 2022 Feb 3:9:782432. doi: 10.3389/fchem.2021.782432. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Xiaoping Zhu^{1

2}, Tianyi Xu^{1

2}, Chen Peng², Shihua Wu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Joint Research Centre for Engineering Biology, Zhejiang University-University of Edinburgh Institute, Zhejiang University, Haining, China.
² Research Center of Siyuan Natural Pharmacy and Biotoxicology, College of Life Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.

Abstract

Compared with conventional optical microscopy techniques, mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) or imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) is a powerful, label-free analytical technique, which can sensitively and simultaneously detect, quantify, and map hundreds of biomolecules, such as peptides, proteins, lipid, and other organic compounds in cells and tissues. So far, although several soft ionization techniques, such as desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) have been used for imaging biomolecules, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) is still the most widespread MSI scanning method. Here, we aim to provide a comprehensive review of MALDI-MSI with an emphasis on its advances of the instrumentation, methods, application, and future directions in single cell and biological tissues.

Keywords: imaging mass spectrometry; matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI); proteomics; single-cell metabolomics; spatial distribution; tissue mapping.

Publication types

Review