Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Living Biosystems, Institute of Chemistry , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190 , China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049 , China.
Anal Chem. 2018 Jul 17;90(14):8309-8313. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b01714. Epub 2018 Jul 6.
MALDI mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) is a powerful tool to study endogenous metabolites. The process of matrix deposition is crucial for a high-quality imaging result. Commercial instruments for matrix deposition are expensive. Low-cost methods like airbrushing will generate matrix crystals that are too large for high-spatial-resolution imaging. Sublimation may cause some compounds to go undetected because of the lack of solvent. Herein, we utilized a mini-humidifier, costing less than 5 dollars, to deposit matrix for MALDI-MSI. Compared with Imageprep, a commercialized instrument, our device based on the humidifier provided higher sensitivity and much smaller matrix crystals with diameters of less than 10 μm. High-quality ion images with 10 μm spatial resolution were obtained using our method. The enhancement of sensitivity by the humidifier could provide a sufficient amount of ions to perform tandem mass imaging. We also performed MALDI-MS/MS imaging to separate two lipids in mouse brain.
基质辅助激光解吸电离质谱成像（MALDI-MSI）是研究内源性代谢物的有力工具。基质沉积的过程对于获得高质量的成像结果至关重要。商用基质沉积仪器价格昂贵。喷涂等低成本方法会产生过大的基质晶体，不适合高空间分辨率成像。升华可能会导致一些化合物因缺乏溶剂而无法被检测到。在这里，我们使用了一个价格不到 5 美元的迷你加湿器来沉积 MALDI-MSI 的基质。与商业化仪器 Imageprep 相比，我们基于加湿器的设备提供了更高的灵敏度和更小的基质晶体，直径小于 10 μm。使用我们的方法获得了具有 10 μm 空间分辨率的高质量离子图像。加湿器的灵敏度增强可以提供足够的离子来进行串联质谱成像。我们还进行了 MALDI-MS/MS 成像，以分离小鼠脑中的两种脂质。
