Direct mass spectrometric analysis of animal tissues is an emerging field enabled by recent developments in ambient ion sources. Label-free in situ analysis of metabolites, lipids, and peptides/proteins from intact tissues in whole fish specimens of different gender and age were performed by laser ablation electrospray ionization (LAESI) mass spectrometry (MS). Hypertrophied glandular tissue (gill gland) of adult male Aphyocharax anisitsi (bloodfin tetra) was compared with gill tissues in females of the same species. Comparison of a large number of sample-specific ions was aided by a multivariate statistical method based on orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis. More than 200 different ions were detected in the mass spectra corresponding to primary metabolites, hormones, lipids and peptides/proteins. The gill tissues of the sexually mature males exhibited multiply charged ions in the 6+ to 10+ charge states corresponding to a protein with a molecular weight of 11 380 Da. This protein was present only in the mature male gill glands but absent in the corresponding area of the female and immature male specimens. An additional nine proteins were detected by LAESI-MS in both the male and female gill tissues.
IntroductionMolecular analysis of proteins, lipids, and metabolites in sh by mass spectrometry (MS) is essential in various aspects of their systems biology, including the understanding of their developmental physiological changes.1,2 Various MS methods are involved in detecting environmental pressures from pharmaceuticals, e.g., antibiotics 3 and contraceptives, 4 to agrochemicals.
5Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) and electrospray ionization (ESI) MS have been established as efficient tools to perform proteomic analysis from sh tissue extracts.
6-8Metabolomics studies of sh tissues frequently utilize extraction protocols followed by gas chromatography (GC) MS or high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) MS.
9,10Direct MS of tissues by recently developed atmospheric pressure ionization methods offers rapid, label-free analysis with minimal sample preparation.11-14 Most ambient MS methods were primarily utilized for analysing metabolites and lipids. [15][16][17][18] Protein analysis from dried biological samples such as blood, cell cultures, and tissues was demonstrated by electrospray assisted laser desorption ionization (ELDI) MS.19 In extracts and crude samples, desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) provided peptide and protein analysis including top down sequencing.20-22 Sensitive analysis of proteins was performed by extractive electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (EESI) by infusing untreated biological samples into the electrospray plume.
23Laser ablation electrospray ionization (LAESI) MS is an ambient ionization technique that employs mid-infrared (mid-IR) laser pulses to locally ablate the tissue or cell sample and electrospray for the ionization of the ejected material.24 The strong absorption maximum of water at 2.94 mm wavelength enables t...