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Ambient molecular imaging by desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry

Nature Protocols volume 3, pages 517–524 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) allows the direct analysis of ordinary objects or pre-processed samples under ambient conditions. Among other applications, DESI is used to identify and record spatial distributions of lipids and drug molecules in biological tissue sections. This technique does not require sample preparation other than production of microtome tissue slices and does not involve the use of ionization matrices. This greatly simplifies the procedure and prevents the redistribution of analytes during matrix deposition. Images are obtained by continuously moving the sample relative to the DESI sprayer and the inlet of the mass spectrometer. The timing of the protocol depends on the size of the surface to be analyzed and on the desired resolution. Analysis of organ tissue slices at 250 μm resolution typically takes between 30 min and 2 h.

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Figure 1: Schematic representation of the strategy adopted in microprobe imaging experiments.
Figure 2
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Figure 5: Effect of the solvent flow-rate on the DESI spot size and sample distribution map using a water sensitive paper.
Figure 6: DESI-MS images of a sagittal section of rat brain tissue.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding from the Office of Naval Research (Research Tools program, grant N000140510454) from which this work was supported. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Candice Kissinger and Simon Katner of Bioanalytical Systems Inc. (West Lafayette, IN) for graciously providing animal tissues and performing the surgical and dosing procedures in accordance with the local animal care and use guidelines.

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  1. Justin M Wiseman

    Present address: Present address: Research and Development, Prosolia, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana, USA.,

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  1. Department of Chemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA

    Justin M Wiseman, Demian R Ifa, Andre Venter & R Graham Cooks

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Correspondence to R Graham Cooks.

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Dr Justin Wiseman, formerly of Purdue University, is now employed by PROSOLIA Inc., Indianapolis, a company which sells DESI ion sources. None of the other authors have competing financial interests.

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Wiseman, J., Ifa, D., Venter, A. et al. Ambient molecular imaging by desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Nat Protoc 3, 517–524 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nprot.2008.11

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