Polyamine Metabolism in Optic Nerve: Spatial Metabolomics with AP/MALDI Mass Spectrometry Imaging

Area of Science:

• Biochemistry
• Neuroscience
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) is a key technique for spatial omics.
• Integrating multimodal datasets enhances spatial multiomics platforms for comprehensive biological insights.
• Combining metabolomics and lipidomics can significantly improve the throughput of spatial analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To detail a protocol for imaging polyamine pathway-related metabolites and lipids in a mouse optic nerve.
• To demonstrate the utility of atmospheric pressure MALDI for multimodal spatial omics.
• To advance the application of MALDI-MSI in neuro-spatial omics research.

Main Methods:

• Utilized atmospheric pressure MALDI-MSI for multimodal spatial omics.
• Performed simultaneous imaging of polyamine pathway metabolites and lipids.
• Applied the protocol to a mouse optic nerve tissue sample.

Main Results:

• Successfully imaged polyamine pathway metabolites and lipids with spatial resolution.
• Demonstrated the feasibility of combining metabolomic and lipidomic data acquisition using MALDI-MSI.
• Provided spatially resolved molecular information from the mouse optic nerve.

Conclusions:

• The presented protocol enables multimodal spatial omics analysis of polyamine metabolites and lipids.
• Atmospheric pressure MALDI-MSI is effective for high-throughput spatial omics in biological tissues.
• This approach offers a powerful tool for understanding molecular distributions in neurological tissues.