Brain MS Imaging after Ischemic Stroke in Mice - Insight for Brain Injury by Abnormal Proteolysis

摘要

Stroke, the 3rd most devastating disease, is caused by blood clotting in the cerebral arteries leading to brain oxygen deprivation and cerebral infarction. We and others have demonstrated that abnormal proteolysis by matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) causes degradation of its substrates that link to stroke. MALDI imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) is a useful tool for determining both relative abundance and spatial distribution of proteins and peptides in tissue. In this study, we applied MALDI-IMS to examine the molecular profiling after stroke and to investigate the linkage to brain proteolysis. We employed a model of focal cerebral ischemia followed by reperfusion in representing the stroke condition. Our analysis focuses on determining the differences between the ischemic versus non-ischemic regions and attempting to identify mass signatures that are correlated with brain abnormal proteolystic activity and disease states.