Imaging the Endoplasmic Reticulum within Individual Mammalian Cells with Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry

Abstract

Various lipid species and cholesterol form the selectively permeable membranes that surround the mammalian cell and compartmentalize its interior into organelles. Studies that employ cellular fractionation and biochemical analysis suggest that each organelle contains a distinct lipid composition, and this composition is related to organellar function. Advances in secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has enabled imaging the distributions of distinct lipid species on the surfaces of cells, and visualizing their intracellular distributions in three dimensions (3D) [1-3]. Organelle-specific labels that can be used to identify specific organelles with SIMS are needed in order to more accurately determine the lipid composition within individual organelles.