Mass spectrometric analysis of a three-dimensional hepatocarcinoma cell model to determine acetaminophen toxicity.

摘要

MALDI-MS imaging has been shown to aid the location tracking of cell clusters within the hydrogel with the use of the phospholipid head group species (m/z= 184.07), which has enabled the identification of significant species localised in the same hydrogel areas (Figures 1 & 2). H+E staining has shown the locations of the cells to be correct, though some sample integrity was lost during the staining process (Figures 1B & 2B). Both HepG2 and HepG2/C3A cell line MALDI-MS images showed acetaminophen penetration through the hydrogel to the cell locations and an increase in peak intensity with drug concentration (Figure 3). As seen in Figure 4, several putative ionic species were discovered in negative mode MALDI-MS. In future, significant peaks are to be identified, confirmed and mapped onto known adverse outcome pathways. Using this method, metabolic and lipidomic biomarkers of the liver cell toxic response could potentially be identified.