Anal Chem. 2020 May 5;92(9):6213-6217. doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.9b05285. Epub 2020 Mar 12.
Single cell lipid profiling is a powerful tool to connect membrane composition and its changes within individual cells to specific biochemical functions or stimuli, but current approaches are inadequate due to the complex nature of the cells and technical limitation in analysis. Herein we report a new method with plasmonic substrates capable of cell localization and enhanced lipid ionization through thin-gold-film MALDI-MS. We performed lipidomic profiling of algae single cells with a 120-well microarray and identified more than 50 lipids in without an extraction process. The substrate was used for probing toxicological effect of herbicide atrazine on the algae's lipidome, demonstrating molecular changes in glycerol lipid profiles. Fast location of cells with metal-enhanced fluorescence (MEF) and subsequent precise and direct ionization of the LDI process contribute to the enhanced performance, allowing for assessment of lipid changes concurrent with atrazine affected populations. This method that combines microarrays, MEF, and MALDI-MS presents an effective platform for lipidomic study of single cells and for environmental toxicity study with microorganisms.
单细胞脂质组学是一种将细胞膜组成与其在单个细胞内的变化与特定生化功能或刺激联系起来的强大工具，但由于细胞的复杂性和分析技术的局限性，目前的方法还不够完善。在此，我们报告了一种新方法，该方法使用等离子体基底能够通过薄金膜 MALDI-MS 实现细胞定位和增强脂质离子化。我们使用 120 孔微阵列对藻类单细胞进行了脂质组学分析，在无需提取过程的情况下鉴定了 中的 50 多种脂质。该基底用于探测除草剂莠去津对藻类脂质组的毒理学影响，显示出甘油脂质谱的分子变化。金属增强荧光 (MEF) 的快速细胞定位和随后的 LDI 过程的精确和直接离子化有助于提高性能，允许与莠去津影响的种群同时评估脂质变化。这种结合微阵列、MEF 和 MALDI-MS 的方法为单细胞脂质组学研究以及微生物环境毒性研究提供了一种有效的平台。
