Metabolic phenotyping of ex-vivo breast samples by DESI mass spectrometry imaging

This study involves the analysis of surgically resected samples from patients undergoing breast surgery. The samples published here have been used as part of the publication by [1], and all experimental details can be found within. Desorption electrospray ionisation mass spectrometry imaging (DESI MSI) was used to provide spatially resolved metabolic profiles across the various tissue samples, which in combination with histological assessment allows characterisation of changes across distinct tissue types. In being able to characterise the metabolic differences between tissue types, it becomes possible to predict future unknown samples using a data-driven histological approach to enhance current disease prognoses.
Ref: [1] Guenther S, Muirhead LJ, Speller AV, Golf O, Strittmatter N, Ramakrishnan R, Goldin RD, Jones E, Veselkov K, Nicholson J, Darzi A, Takats Z. Spatially resolved metabolic phenotyping of breast cancer by desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. Cancer Res. 2015 May 1;75(9):1828-37. doi:10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-14-2258. PMID:25691458