All experiments mentioned in this manuscript were performed in accordance with local ethical guidelines. Human cervical tissues were obtained from the University of North Carolina Tissue Procurement Facility through UNC IRB #09-0921, and written informed consent was obtained from all patients. Two-day-old whole neonatal mouse pups were obtained from NCSU Department of Molecular Biomedical Sciences. Hen ovarian tissues were acquired from commercial egg laying hens in the NCSU Department of Poultry Science. All husbandry practices were approved by North Carolina State University Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC).
All imaging experiments were performed in our laboratory using infrared matrix-assisted laser desorption electrospray ionization (IR-MALDESI) sourced coupled to high resolving power mass spectrometers. The details of IR-MALDESI source design and steps involved in imaging experiments are described elsewhere in detail [10 (link), 17 (link), 18 ]. In short, the tissues were sectioned into 10–25 μm thick sections using a Leica CM1950 cryostat (Buffalo Grove, IL, USA) and then thaw-mounted onto clean microscope slides. For quantitative MSI analyses, a calibration series of stable isotope labeled version of the analyte was pipetted directly on top of the tissue section prior to IR-MALDESI analysis. The tissue sections were then transferred to the enclosure housing the IR-MALDESI imaging source and placed on a Peltier-cooled stage. The relative humidity inside the enclosure was reduced to ~10% by purging the enclosure with dry nitrogen gas, and the stage temperature was reduced to -10 °C. After roughly 10 minutes, the enclosure was opened to allow the deposition of a thin layer of ice matrix on the tissue by sublimation of water present in the atmosphere. Once a thin layer of ice was formed over the tissue, the enclosure was closed and the relative humidity was again reduced to ~10%.
Two mid-infrared laser pulses at a wavelength of 2940 nm were used to desorb material from the tissue sections. The neutral material desorbed from the tissue partition into the charged droplets of the electrospray and are ionized in an ESI-like fashion. Quantitative MSI and whole-body MSI were performed using a Q Exactive mass spectrometer (Thermo Scientific, Bremen, Germany) as described by Bokhart et al. [19 (link)] and Rosen et al. [20 (link)], respectively. Polarity switching IR-MALDESI MSI was performed using a Q Exactive Plus mass spectrometer (Thermo Scientific, Bremen, Germany) as outlined by Nazari and Muddiman [21 (link)]. Since IR-MALDESI is a pulsed ionization source, the automatic gain control (AGC) is disabled and ions are stored in the C-trap for a pre-determined amount of time denoted by the maximum injection time (IT). Mass ranges, electrospray solvent composition, and the injection times varied for each experiment since these need to be optimized based on the goals of each analysis.
The .RAW files generated by the Thermo instruments were first converted to mzML format using the msConvert tool from ProteoWizard [22 (link)], and then converted to imzML using the imzML converter [23 (link)]. The imzML files were subsequently loaded into MSiReader v1.0 for visualization and analysis.
All imaging experiments were performed in our laboratory using infrared matrix-assisted laser desorption electrospray ionization (IR-MALDESI) sourced coupled to high resolving power mass spectrometers. The details of IR-MALDESI source design and steps involved in imaging experiments are described elsewhere in detail [10 (link), 17 (link), 18 ]. In short, the tissues were sectioned into 10–25 μm thick sections using a Leica CM1950 cryostat (Buffalo Grove, IL, USA) and then thaw-mounted onto clean microscope slides. For quantitative MSI analyses, a calibration series of stable isotope labeled version of the analyte was pipetted directly on top of the tissue section prior to IR-MALDESI analysis. The tissue sections were then transferred to the enclosure housing the IR-MALDESI imaging source and placed on a Peltier-cooled stage. The relative humidity inside the enclosure was reduced to ~10% by purging the enclosure with dry nitrogen gas, and the stage temperature was reduced to -10 °C. After roughly 10 minutes, the enclosure was opened to allow the deposition of a thin layer of ice matrix on the tissue by sublimation of water present in the atmosphere. Once a thin layer of ice was formed over the tissue, the enclosure was closed and the relative humidity was again reduced to ~10%.
Two mid-infrared laser pulses at a wavelength of 2940 nm were used to desorb material from the tissue sections. The neutral material desorbed from the tissue partition into the charged droplets of the electrospray and are ionized in an ESI-like fashion. Quantitative MSI and whole-body MSI were performed using a Q Exactive mass spectrometer (Thermo Scientific, Bremen, Germany) as described by Bokhart et al. [19 (link)] and Rosen et al. [20 (link)], respectively. Polarity switching IR-MALDESI MSI was performed using a Q Exactive Plus mass spectrometer (Thermo Scientific, Bremen, Germany) as outlined by Nazari and Muddiman [21 (link)]. Since IR-MALDESI is a pulsed ionization source, the automatic gain control (AGC) is disabled and ions are stored in the C-trap for a pre-determined amount of time denoted by the maximum injection time (IT). Mass ranges, electrospray solvent composition, and the injection times varied for each experiment since these need to be optimized based on the goals of each analysis.
The .RAW files generated by the Thermo instruments were first converted to mzML format using the msConvert tool from ProteoWizard [22 (link)], and then converted to imzML using the imzML converter [23 (link)]. The imzML files were subsequently loaded into MSiReader v1.0 for visualization and analysis.