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Recent advances in mass spectrometry imaging of single cells

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Abstract

Mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a sensitive, specific, label-free imaging analysis technique that can simultaneously obtain the spatial distribution, relative content, and structural information of hundreds of biomolecules in cells and tissues, such as lipids, small drug molecules, peptides, proteins, and other compounds. The study of molecular mapping of single cells can reveal major scientific issues such as the activity pattern of living organisms, disease pathogenesis, drug-targeted therapy, and cellular heterogeneity. Applying MSI technology to the molecular mapping of single cells can provide new insights and ideas for the study of single-cell metabolomics. This review aims to provide an informative resource for those in the MSI community who are interested in single-cell imaging. Particularly, we discuss advances in imaging schemes and sample preparation, instrumentation improvements, data processing and analysis, and 3D MSI over the past few years that have allowed MSI to emerge as a powerful technique in the molecular imaging of single cells. Also, we highlight some of the most cutting-edge studies in single-cell MSI, demonstrating the future potential of single-cell MSI. Visualizing molecular distribution at the single-cell or even sub-cellular level can provide us with richer cell information, which strongly contributes to advancing research fields such as biomedicine, life sciences, pharmacodynamic testing, and metabolomics. At the end of the review, we summarize the current development of single-cell MSI technology and look into the future of this technology.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research & Development Program of China (No. 2022YFA1103602) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21874153).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Heavy Oil Processing, China University of Petroleum, Beijing, 102249, China

    Jikun Liu, Wenya Hu & Yehua Han

  2. Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Jikun Liu, Wenya Hu & Honggang Nie

  3. Analytical Instrumental Center, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Jikun Liu, Wenya Hu & Honggang Nie

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  1. Jikun Liu
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Published in the topical collection Young Investigators in (Bio-)Analytical Chemistry 2023 with guest editors Zhi-Yuan Gu, Beatriz Jurado-Sánchez, Thomas H. Linz, Leandro Wang Hantao, Nongnoot Wongkaew, and Peng Wu.

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Liu, J., Hu, W., Han, Y. et al. Recent advances in mass spectrometry imaging of single cells. Anal Bioanal Chem 415, 4093–4110 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-023-04774-9

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