title: Molecular histology of arteries: mass spectrometry imaging as a novel ex vivo tool to investigate atherosclerosis.
abstract: Atherosclerosis is usually the underlying cause of a fatal event such as myocardial infarction or ictus. The atherome plaque develops silently and asymptomatically within the arterial intima layer. In this context, the possibility to analyze the molecular content of arterial tissue while preserving each molecule's specific localization is of great interest as it may reveal further insights into the physiopathological changes taking place. Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) enables the spatially resolved molecular analysis of proteins, peptides, metabolites, lipids and drugs directly in tissue, with a resolution sufficient to reveal molecular features specific to distinct arterial structures. MSI represents a novel ex vivo imaging tool still underexplored in cardiovascular diseases. This review focuses on the MSI technique applied to cardiovascular disease and covers the main contributions to date, ongoing efforts, the main challenges and current limitations of MSI.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Immunology , IIS-Fundacion Jimenez Diaz, UAM , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Marta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Martin-Lorenzo
authors.affiliation: a Department of Immunology , IIS-Fundacion Jimenez Diaz, UAM , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Gloria
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Alvarez-Llamas
authors.affiliation: b Center for Proteomics and Metabolomics , LUMC , Leiden , The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Liam A
authors.initials: LA
authors.lastname: McDonnell
authors.affiliation: a Department of Immunology , IIS-Fundacion Jimenez Diaz, UAM , Madrid , Spain.|c Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology I , UCM , Madrid , Spain.
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Vivanco
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001158:Arteries / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D050197:Atherosclerosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000378:metabolism; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D006801:Humans; D013058:Mass Spectrometry
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers
keywords: MALDI-MSI; SIMS-TOF; arterial tissue; atherosclerosis; cardiovascular disease; imaging; mass spectrometry; proteomics