Research Institute of Translational Medicine, The First Hospital of Jilin University, Jilin University, Dongminzhu Street, Changchun 130061, PR China.
Analyst. 2019 Jan 28;144(3):824-845. doi: 10.1039/c8an01190g.
Cells are the most basic structural units that play vital roles in the functioning of living organisms. Analysis of the chemical composition and content of a single cell plays a vital role in ensuring precise investigations of cellular metabolism, and is a crucial aspect of lipidomic and proteomic studies. In addition, structural knowledge provides a better understanding of cell behavior as well as the cellular and subcellular mechanisms. However, single-cell analysis can be very challenging due to the very small size of each cell as well as the large variety and extremely low concentrations of substances found in individual cells. On account of its high sensitivity and selectivity, mass spectrometry holds great promise as an effective technique for single-cell analysis. Numerous mass spectrometric techniques have been developed to elucidate the molecular profiles at the cellular level, including electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS), secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS), laser-based mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). In this review, the recent advances in single-cell analysis by mass spectrometry are summarized. The strategies of different ionization modes to achieve single-cell analysis are classified and discussed in detail.
细胞是生命活动的基本结构和功能单位，解析单细胞的化学组成和含量对于深入研究细胞代谢具有重要意义，也是脂质组学和蛋白质组学研究的关键环节。此外，结构知识可以更好地了解细胞行为以及细胞和亚细胞机制。然而，单细胞分析极具挑战性，因为每个细胞的体积非常小，而且单个细胞中存在的物质种类繁多，浓度极低。由于质谱具有高灵敏度和选择性，因此它作为单细胞分析的有效技术具有很大的潜力。已经开发了许多质谱技术来阐明细胞水平的分子特征，包括电喷雾电离质谱（ESI-MS）、二次离子质谱（SIMS）、基于激光的质谱和电感耦合等离子体质谱（ICP-MS）。本综述总结了近年来质谱在单细胞分析方面的进展。详细分类和讨论了不同离子化模式的策略，以实现单细胞分析。
