Atmospheric pressure mass spectrometric imaging of live hippocampal tissue slices with subcellular spatial resolution

We report a high spatial resolution mass spectrometry (MS) system that allows us to image live hippocampal tissue slices under open-air atmospheric pressure (AP) and ambient temperature conditions at the subcellular level. The method is based on an efficient desorption process by femtosecond (fs) laser assisted with nanoparticles and a subsequent ionization step by applying nonthermal plasma, termed AP nanoparticle and plasma assisted laser desorption ionization (AP-nanoPALDI) MS method. Combining the AP-nanoPALDI with microscopic sample scanning, MS imaging with spatial resolution of 2.9 µm was obtained. The observed AP-nanoPALDI MS imaging clearly revealed the differences of molecular composition between the apical and basal dendrite regions of a hippocampal tissue. In addition, the AP-nanoPALDI MS imaging showed the decrease of cholesterol in hippocampus by treating with methyl β-cyclodextrin, which exemplifies the potential of AP-nanoPALDI for live tissue imaging for various biomedical applications without any chemical pretreatment and/or labeling process.