PNNL

Abstract

Matrix effects in mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) may affect the observed molecular distribution in chemical and biological systems. In this study, we introduce an experimental approach that efficiently compensates for matrix effects in nanospray desorption electrospray ionization (nano-DESI) MSI without introducing any complexity into the experimental protocol. We demonstrate compensation for matrix effects in nano-DESI MSI of phosphatidylcholine (PC) in normal and ischemic mouse brain tissue by doping the nano-DESI solvent with PC standards. Specifically, we use mouse brain tissue of a middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) stroke model with an ischemic region localized to one hemisphere of the brain. Due to similar suppression in ionization of endogenous PC molecules extracted from the tissue and PC standards added to the solvent, matrix effects are eliminated by normalizing the intensity of the sodium and potassium adducts of endogenous PC to the intensity of the corresponding adduct of the PC standard. This approach efficiently compensates for signal variations resulting from differences in the local concentrations of sodium and potassium in tissue sections and from the complexity of the extracted analyte mixture derived from local variations in molecular composition.