Imaging and Molecular Identification of Biomolecules on Tissue Sections with AXIMA-QIT: Shimadzu Corporation

In MALDI-IMS experiments, because of the complex MALDI process on the tissue surface, the ability to both visualize and identify molecules directly on the tissue surface by tandem mass spectrometry (MS n ) is essential. Here we introduce an imaging system based on a MALDI-quadrupole ion trap time-of-flight type instrument (AXIMA-QIT; Shimadzu Corporation), which is compatible with both imaging and highly sensitive MS n . In this chapter, we present the attractive features of the AXIMA-QIT as an imaging instrument and introduce the variety of application topics. The visualized biomolecules were successfully identified by MS n directly on the tissue surface, with a strong ability to isolate precursor ions. The presented IMS system with AXIMA-QIT covers a wide range of molecular imaging including phospholipids and other endogenous metabolites and also tryptic-digested proteins in various biological samples.