Micrometric molecular histology of lipids by mass spectrometry imaging

Time-Of-Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry is compared to other mass spectrometry imaging techniques, and recent improvements of the experimental methods, driven by biological and biomedical applications, are described and discussed. This review shows that this method that can be considered as a micrometric molecular histology is particularly efficient for obtaining images of various lipid species at the surface of a tissue sample, without sample preparation, and with a routine spatial resolution of 1 μm or less.

► Comparison of different mass spectrometry imaging methods. ► Cluster time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry. ► Localization of lipids at a resolution of 1 μm or less at the surface of tissues. ► Applications of TOF-SIMS imaging to diseases inducing lipid disorders.