1P-17 PDF
Utility of Heat Stabilization on Hepatic ATP Visualization in Imaging Mass Spectrometry
Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the major energy currency of cells and is involved in many biological processes. Imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) allows us to provide spatial information of various molecules on tissue slices, including ATP. This study was aimed to elucidate the appropriate sample preparation method to obtain nearly in vivo information about distribution of ATP in the liver using IMS, which is easily susceptible to ex vivo degradation. Collectively, heat stabilization (HS) was effective on fresh samples (not snap-frozen samples) of mice livers, resulting in high values of ATP/AMP intensity ratio in IMS, low values of decreasing rate in ATP abundance after being exposed to room air for 30 minutes. Quantitative MS approach revealed several metabolites in the liver which were significantly different between snap-frozen and HS samples. In conclusion, the appropriate sample preparation method would provide us nearly in vivo knowledge about metabolites including ATP, leading to the understanding of the pathological process of liver diseases.