All Gunked Up and Nowhere to Flow: Profiles of Murine Atherosclerotic Plaques by High Spatial Resolution MALDI Imaging Mass Spectrometry

摘要

Atherosclerosis, a leading cause of death in the U.S., involves lipid-mediated inflammation, lesion formation and necrosis. Lipid buildup in the aortic sinus increases shear stress and plaques form on the aortic valve and within the aortic outflow tract. There are currently several mouse models of atherosclerosis used for biomedical research. However, due to the small size of murine cardiovascular anatomy, there are significant technical challenges in sensitivity, spatial resolution and matrix application to accessing these models by MALDI imaging mass spectrometry (IMS). Here we report on methodologies towards obtaining high spatial resolution (<=10 (mu)m) lipid images by MALDI IMS involving the application of aqueous washes to thin tissue sections to enhance negative ion mode imaging of phospholipids.