M4I, The Maastricht Multimodal Molecular Imaging Institute, Division of Imaging Mass Spectrometry, Maastricht University, Postbus 616, 6200, MD, Maastricht, The Netherlands.
Central Analytical Research Facility, Institute for Future Environments, Queensland University of Technology, 2 George St, Brisbane, QLD 4000, Australia.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2018 Aug 13;57(33):10530-10534. doi: 10.1002/anie.201802937. Epub 2018 Jun 19.
Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) enables the spatial distributions of molecules possessing different mass-to-charge ratios to be mapped within complex environments revealing regional changes at the molecular level. Even at high mass resolving power, however, these images often reflect the summed distribution of multiple isomeric molecules, each potentially possessing a unique distribution coinciding with distinct biological function(s) and metabolic origin. Herein, this chemical ambiguity is addressed through an innovative combination of ozone-induced dissociation reactions with MSI, enabling the differential imaging of isomeric lipid molecules directly from biological tissues. For the first time, we demonstrate both double bond- and sn-positional isomeric lipids exhibit distinct spatial locations within tissue. This MSI approach enables researchers to unravel local lipid molecular complexity based on both exact elemental composition and isomeric structure directly from tissues.
质谱成像（MSI）能够在复杂环境中绘制具有不同质荷比的分子的空间分布，从而揭示分子水平上的区域变化。然而，即使在高质量分辨率下，这些图像通常也反映了多种同分异构体分子的总和分布，每个同分异构体分子都可能具有独特的分布，与独特的生物学功能和代谢起源相对应。在这里，通过将臭氧诱导解离反应与 MSI 创新组合，解决了这种化学上的不确定性，从而能够直接从生物组织中对同分异构脂质分子进行差异成像。我们首次证明双键和 sn-位置同分异构脂质在组织内具有不同的空间位置。这种 MSI 方法使研究人员能够根据组织中直接的元素组成和同分异构结构来揭示局部脂质分子的复杂性。
