ABSTRACT

Introduction: Imaging is a technique used for direct visualization of the internal structure or distribution of biomolecules of a living system in a two-dimensional or three-dimensional fashion. Phospholipids are important structural components of biological membranes and have been reported to be associated with various human diseases. Therefore, the visualization of phospholipids is crucial to understand the underlying mechanism of cellular and molecular processes in normal and diseased conditions.

Areas covered: Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) has enabled the label-free imaging of individual phospholipids in biological tissues and cells. The commonly used MSI techniques include matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization-MSI (MALDI-MSI), desorption electrospray ionization-MSI (DESI-MSI), and secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) imaging. This special report described those methods, summarized the findings, and discussed the future development for the imaging of phospholipids.

Expert opinion: Phospholipids imaging in complex biological samples has been significantly benefited from the development of MSI methods. In MALDI-MSI, novel matrix that produces homogenous crystals exclusively with polar lipids is important for phospholipids imaging with greater efficiency and higher spatial resolution. DESI-MSI has the potential of live imaging of the biological surface while SIMS is expected to image at the subcellular level in the near future.

摘要

简介： 成像是一种用于以二维或三维方式直接可视化生命系统的生物分子的内部结构或分布的技术。磷脂是生物膜的重要结构成分，据报道与各种人类疾病有关。因此，磷脂的可视化对于理解正常和患病条件下细胞和分子过程的潜在机制至关重要。

涵盖的领域： 质谱成像 (MSI) 已实现生物组织和细胞中单个磷脂的无标记成像。常用的MSI技术包括基质辅助激光解吸电离-MSI（MALDI-MSI）、解吸电喷雾电离-MSI（DESI-MSI）和二次离子质谱（SIMS）成像。这份特别报告描述了这些方法，总结了研究结果，并讨论了磷脂成像的未来发展。

专家意见：复杂生物样品中的磷脂成像已显着受益于 MSI 方法的发展。在 MALDI-MSI 中，仅用极性脂质产生同质晶体的新型基质对于具有更高效率和更高空间分辨率的磷脂成像非常重要。DESI-MSI 具有生物表面实时成像的潜力，而 SIMS 有望在不久的将来在亚细胞水平上成像。