MALDI mass spectrometry imaging: A cutting‐edge tool for fundamental and clinical histopathology

Abstract

Histopathological diagnoses have been done in the last century based on hematoxylin and eosin staining. These methods were complemented by histochemistry, electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry (IHC), and molecular techniques. Mass spectrometry (MS) methods allow the thorough examination of various biocompounds in extracts and tissue sections. Today, mass spectrometry imaging (MSI), and especially matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) imaging links classical histology and molecular analyses. Direct mapping is a major advantage of the combination of molecular profiling and imaging. MSI can be considered as a cutting edge approach for molecular detection of proteins, peptides, carbohydrates, lipids, and small molecules in tissues. This review covers the detection of various biomolecules in histopathological sections by MSI. Proteomic methods will be introduced into clinical histopathology within the next few years.

Development of a Class Prediction Model to Discriminate Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma from Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumor by MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging

“…Furthermore, it is highly desirable to define the differential profile on the molecular level to find new potential diagnostic, prognostic, or predictive biomarkers. A molecular method that has been increasingly employed to explore disease in pathology is MALDI MSI …”

Mass spectrometry imaging: An emerging technology for the analysis of metabolites in insects

“…Then, the ionization of each pixel on the surface of the sample was obtained by a mass analyzer (Ho, Shu, & Yang, ). Currently, MSI has been applied in many fields of life science, such as histology (Longuespée et al, ; Yalcin & de la Monte, ), pathology (Bowrey et al, ; Schubert, Weiland, Baune, & Hoffmann, ), pharmacology (Kwon et al, ; Liu & Hummon, ), plant science (Dong, Li, & Aharoni, ; Sturtevant, Lee, & Chapman, ), and microbiology (Shih, Chen, Liaw, Lai, & Yang, ; J. Y. Yang et al, ). Moreover, a number of papers have addressed the application of MSI in botany (Boughton, Thinagaran, Sarabia, Bacic, & Roessner, ; Qin et al, ), food science (Yoshimura, Goto‐Inoue, Moriyama, & Zaima, ), and biological interactions (Ho et al, ).…”

In MALDI–Mass Spectrometry Imaging on Formalin‐Fixed Paraffin‐Embedded Tissue Specimen Section Thickness Significantly Influences m/z Peak Intensity

“…Moreover, FFPE tissues have different surface properties than fresh frozen tissues. Therefore, the available data from fresh frozen tissue may not be simply transferred to FFPE tissues …”