Next‐generation pathology practices with mass spectrometry imaging

Abstract

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a powerful technique that reveals the spatial distribution of various molecules in biological samples, and it is widely used in pathology‐related research. In this review, we summarize common MSI techniques, including matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization and desorption electrospray ionization MSI, and their applications in pathological research, including disease diagnosis, microbiology, and drug discovery. We also describe the improvements of MSI, focusing on the accumulation of imaging data sets, expansion of chemical coverage, and identification of biological significant molecules, that have prompted the evolution of MSI to meet the requirements of pathology practices. Overall, this review details the applications and improvements of MSI techniques, demonstrating the potential of integrating MSI techniques into next‐generation pathology practices.

Correlative Chemical Imaging and Spatial Chemometrics Delineate Alzheimer Plaque Heterogeneity at High Spatial Resolution

“…79 information to accumarray(). The joint entropy was calculated in a similar fashion (5) The joint entropy is minimized when the pixels in each of the images correspond exactly. In contrast, if the statistical relationship between the two images weakens, the joint entropy increases.…”

“…Over the last years, mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) has emerged as a powerful tool for chemical imaging to increase understanding of spatial biochemical distribution dynamics in tissue that are associated with histopathological processes. − Moreover, acquisitions of multiple chemical imaging modalities contribute with complementary molecular information, specifically multimodal MSI or the integration of MSI with histological microscopy, vibrational spectroscopy, magnetic resonance imaging, as well as fluorescence microscopy. − The acquisition of imaging data in multiple modalities yields datasets that may be spatially misaligned. In order to combine such datasets, the imaging data need to be registered to one another, meaning precisely geometrically aligned and image distortion-corrected .…”

State-of-the-art mass spectrometry imaging applications in biomedical research

“…The interest in MSI and the MSI community have consequently grown significantly. MSI has now advanced from a technique uniquely available to MS experts with niche applications to a widely applied tool operating at the forefront of numerous fields ranging from drug development in the pharmaceutical industry, 10 to clinical analyses in hospital settings, 11 and fundamental biochemical discoveries in academia. 12 This is reflected by an exponentially growing number of publications: a PubMed search, done in August 2023, for the terms "mass spectrometry imaging" and "imaging mass spectrometry" shows that the annual number of publications has grown from ten in 2005 to surpassing 500 after 2020 (Fig.…”

High-Throughput Deconvolution of Native Protein Mass Spectrometry Imaging Data Sets for Mass Domain Analysis

“…Analysis of the spatial distribution of biomolecules in tissue is an important aspect of life sciences research and involves a wide range of techniques. − Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is routinely used to map the spatial distribution of metals and small molecules (e.g., metabolites and lipids , ) with a variety of different sampling techniques. MSI of intact proteins is much less common due to the technical challenges of ionizing proteins directly from a substrate and manipulating large ions in the gas phase.…”