title: Whole-cell MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry: a tool for immune cell analysis and characterization.
abstract: Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) is widely used in proteomics. It has been recently demonstrated that MALDI-TOF MS can be used to identify and classify numerous bacterial species or subspecies. We applied MALDI-TOF MS directly to intact mammalian cells, and we found that this method is valuable to identify human circulating cells and cells involved in the immune response including macrophages. As macrophages are characterized by a high degree of plasticity in response to their microenvironment, we stimulated human macrophages with cytokines, bacterial products, and a variety of bacteria. We found that MALDI-TOF MS discriminated unstimulated and stimulated macrophages, and also detected multifaceted activation of macrophages. We conclude that whole-cell MALDI-TOF MS is an accurate method to identify various cell types and to detect subtle modifications in cell activity.
authors: Unité de Recherche sur les Maladies Infectieuses Tropicales et Emergentes, Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France.
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Ouedraogo
authors: Julien
authors: J
authors: Textoris
authors: Aurélie
authors: A
authors: Daumas
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: Capo
authors: Jean-Louis
authors: JL
authors: Mege
mesh_terms: D016207:Cytokines / Q000494:pharmacology; D006801:Humans; D007109:Immunity / Q000187:drug effects; D008264:Macrophages / Q000187:drug effects / Q000276:immunology* / Q000382:microbiology; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines