A ToF-SIMS methodology for analyzing inter-tissue lipid distribution variations and intra-tissue multilevel mass spectrometry imaging within a single rat

Abstract

A comprehensive investigation of lipid distribution across various tissues is significant in elucidating their physiological roles and the development of associated metabolic disorders. In this work, high spatial-resolved ToF-SIMS was employed to compare and analyze lipid characteristics in brain, liver, heart and kidney tissues obtained from a single rat. Notably, various lipids including phosphatidylcholine, cholesterol, fatty acids, and vitamin E exhibited distinct distribution patterns among these tissues. Furthermore, the metabolic characteristics within a given tissue were acquired at the tissue and sub-tissue to cellular level, thus establishing a connection with their biological functionalities. These findings demonstrate the capability of ToF-SIMS to discern variations in metabolite composition across distinct tissues, as well as to monitor the progression of metabolite spatial distribution within the same tissues. Such insights hold potential for investigating metabolic alterations in inter-tissue or intra-tissue contexts following drug intervention or metabolic disorders, thereby elucidating the underlying metabolic mechanisms of diseases and identifying novel metabolic pathways for therapeutic interventions.