Experimental Assessment of Mammalian Lipidome Complexity Using Multimodal 21 T FTICR Mass Spectrometry Imaging

Herein, we assess the complementarity and complexity of data that can be detected within mammalian lipidome mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) via matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) and nanospray desorption electrospray ionization (nano-DESI). We do so by employing 21 T Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) with absorption mode FT processing in both cases, allowing unmatched mass resolving power per unit time (≥613k at m/z 760, 1.536 s transients). While our results demonstrated that molecular coverage and dynamic range capabilities were greater in MALDI analysis, nano-DESI provided superior mass error, and all annotations for both modes had sub-ppm error. Taken together, these experiments highlight the coverage of 1676 lipids and serve as a functional guide for expected lipidome complexity within nano-DESI-MSI and MALDI-MSI. To further assess the lipidome complexity, mass splits (i.e., the difference in mass between neighboring peaks) within single pixels were collated across all pixels from each respective MSI experiment. The spatial localization of these mass splits was powerful in informing whether the observed mass splits were biological or artificial (e.g., matrix related). Mass splits down to 2.4 mDa were observed (i.e., sodium adduct ambiguity) in each experiment, and both modalities highlighted comparable degrees of lipidome complexity. Further, we highlight the persistence of certain mass splits (e.g., 8.9 mDa; double bond ambiguity) independent of ionization biases. We also evaluate the need for ultrahigh mass resolving power for mass splits ≤4.6 mDa (potassium adduct ambiguity) at m/z > 1000, which may only be resolved by advanced FTICR-MS instrumentation.