title: An Assessment of the Utility of Tissue Smears in Rapid Cancer Profiling with Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (DESI-MS).
abstract: Mass spectrometry imaging with desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) is used to characterize cancer from ex vivo slices of tissues. The process is time-consuming. The use of tissue smears for DESI-MS analysis has been proposed as it eliminates the time required to snap-freeze and section the tissue. To assess the utility of tissue smears for rapid cancer characterization, principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to evaluate the concordance between DESI-MS profiles of breast cancer from tissue slices and smears prepared on various surfaces. PCA suggested no statistical discrimination between DESI-MS profiles of tissue sections and tissue smears prepared on glass, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), and porous PTFE. However, the abundances of cancer biomarker ions varied between sections and smears, with DESI-MS analysis of tissue sections yielding higher ion abundances of cancer biomarkers compared with smears. Coefficient of variance (CV) analysis suggests DESI-MS profiles from tissue smears are as reproducible as the ones from tissue sections. The limit of detection with smear samples from single pixel analysis is comparable to tissue sections that average the signal from a tissue area of 0.01 mm2. The smears prepared on the PTFE surface possessed a higher degree of homogeneity compared with the smears prepared on the glass surface. This allowed single MS scans (~1 s) from random positions across the surface of the smear to be used in rapid cancer typing with good reproducibility, providing pathologic information for cancer typing at speeds suitable for clinical utility. Graphical Abstract ᅟ.
authors.affiliation: Techna Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, M5G-1P5, Canada.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Woolman
authors.affiliation: Techna Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, M5G-1P5, Canada.
authors.forename: Alessandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tata
authors.affiliation: Techna Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, M5G-1P5, Canada.
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Bluemke
authors.affiliation: Techna Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, M5G-1P5, Canada.
authors.forename: Delaram
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dara
authors.affiliation: Techna Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, M5G-1P5, Canada.|Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, 164 College Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 3G9, Canada.|Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, 149 College Street, Toronto, ON, M5T-1P5, Canada.|Keenan Research Center for Biomedical Science, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, ON, M5B-1W8, Canada.
authors.forename: Howard J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Ginsberg
authors.affiliation: Techna Institute for the Advancement of Technology for Health, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, M5G-1P5, Canada. arash.zarrine.afsar@utoronto.ca.|Department of Surgery, University of Toronto, 149 College Street, Toronto, ON, M5T-1P5, Canada. arash.zarrine.afsar@utoronto.ca.|Keenan Research Center for Biomedical Science, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, 30 Bond Street, Toronto, ON, M5B-1W8, Canada. arash.zarrine.afsar@utoronto.ca.|Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, 101 College Street Suite 15-701, Toronto, ON, M5G 1L7, Canada. arash.zarrine.afsar@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Arash
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zarrine-Afsar
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D001940:Breast / Q000473:pathology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016513:Mice, SCID; D025341:Principal Component Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D021241:Spectrometry, Mass, Electrospray Ionization / Q000379:methods*; D064726:Triple Negative Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor
keywords: Breast cancer; DESI-MS; DESI-MS imaging; MS profiling; Tumor smear