Mass spectrometry (MS) based techniques are gaining popularity for metabolomics research due to their high sensitivity, wide detection range, and capability of molecular identification. Utilizing such powerful technique to explore the cellular metabolism at the single cell level not only appreciates the subtle cell-to-cell difference (i.e., cell heterogeneity), but also gains biological merits corresponding to individual cells or small cell subpopulations. In this review article, we first briefly summarize recent advances in single cell MS experimental techniques, and then emphasize on the single cell metabolomics data analysis approaches. Through implementation of statistical analysis and more advanced data analysis methods, single cell metabolomics is expected to find more potential applications in the translational and clinical fields in the future.

中文翻译：

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使用质谱的单细胞代谢组学：技术和数据分析

基于质谱 (MS) 的技术因其高灵敏度、宽检测范围和分子鉴定能力而在代谢组学研究中越来越受欢迎。利用这种强大的技术在单细胞水平上探索细胞代谢，不仅可以了解细胞间细微的差异（即细胞异质性），而且可以获得与单个细胞或小细胞亚群相对应的生物学优点。在这篇综述文章中，我们首先简要总结了单细胞 MS 实验技术的最新进展，然后重点介绍了单细胞代谢组学数据分析方法。通过实施统计分析和更先进的数据分析方法，