Abstract
Ambient mass spectrometry imaging (AMSI) has attracted much attention in recent years. As a kind of unlabeled molecular imaging technique, AMSI can enable in situ visualization of a large number of compounds in biological tissue sections in ambient conditions. In this review, the developments of various AMSI techniques are discussed according to one-step and two-step ionization strategies. In addition, recent applications of AMSI for lipid and metabolite analysis (from 2016 to 2021) in disease diagnosis, animal model research, plant science, drug metabolism and toxicology research, etc., are summarized. Finally, further perspectives of AMSI in spatial resolution, sensitivity, quantitative ability, convenience and software development are proposed.
Highlights
IntroductionMass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a powerful analytical method, which is able to visualize the spatial distribution of a large number of compounds from the complex sample surface in a single experiment [1]
Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a powerful analytical method, which is able to visualize the spatial distribution of a large number of compounds from the complex sample surface in a single experiment [1].Generally in MSI experiments, the sample sections should be carefully prepared and scanned and ionized by various desorption/ionization methods
We introduce the commonly used ambient mass spectrometry imaging (AMSI) methods and highlight the recent applications of AMSI in lipid and metabolite analysis in the last five years
Summary
Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a powerful analytical method, which is able to visualize the spatial distribution of a large number of compounds from the complex sample surface in a single experiment [1]. Ambient mass spectrometry refers to those ionization techniques operated in an atmospheric environment with little or no sample preparation [2,3]. It was firstly introduced by Cooks et al in 2004 with the invention of desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) [4]. AMSI techniques based on different ionization methods have been proposed for the improvement of sensitivity and spatial resolution, and they have been widely applied in disease diagnosis, drug metabolism, toxicology research, forensic investigation and plant science [5,6,7].
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