Compound and metabolite distribution measured by MALDI mass spectrometric imaging in whole-body tissue sections

The determination of the compound distribution in laboratory animal tissue in early development is a standard process in pharmaceutical research. While this information is traditionally obtained by means of whole-body autoradiography using radiolabeled compounds, this technology does not distinguish between metabolites and parent compound. The technique described in this article, termed matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometric imaging, can fill this gap by simultaneously measuring compound and multiple metabolites distributed in whole-body tissue sections, using non-labeled compounds.