title: Atmospheric pressure MALDI mass spectrometry imaging of tissues and cells at 1.4-μm lateral resolution.
abstract: We report an atmospheric pressure (AP) matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) setup with a lateral resolution of 1.4 μm, a mass resolution greater than 100,000, and accuracy below ±2 p.p.m. We achieved this by coupling a focusing objective with a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.9 at 337 nm and a free working distance of 18 mm in coaxial geometry to an orbitrap mass spectrometer and optimizing the matrix application. We demonstrate improvement in image contrast, lateral resolution, and ion yield per unit area compared with a state-of-the-art commercial MSI source. We show that our setup can be used to detect metabolites, lipids, and small peptides, as well as to perform tandem MS experiments with 1.5-μm2sampling areas. To showcase these capabilities, we identified subcellular lipid, metabolite, and peptide distributions that differentiate, for example, cilia and oral groove in Paramecium caudatum.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kompauer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heiles
authors.affiliation: Institute of Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Bernhard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Spengler
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001274:Atmospheric Pressure; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007668:Kidney / Q000166:cytology / Q000378:metabolism*; D008055:Lipids / Q000032:analysis; D008297:Male; D055442:Metabolome; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D008856:Microscopy, Fluorescence; D048488:Paramecium caudatum / Q000378:metabolism*; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis / Q000379:methods; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000379:methods*; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids