2P-19 PDF
Development of method to visualize neurotransmitters in Drosophila melanogaster adult brain using matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization/imaging mass spectrometry
Abnormal concentration of amino neurotransmitters such as dopamine, GABA and serotonin is linked to neurodegenerative disease. The distribution of these neurotransmitters is important to study the mechanism as well as to find effective cures. Recently, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-IMS) has been used as a direct imaging method to visualize neurotransmitters in mouse brain using on-tissue derivatization. However, the number of the applications on small tissues is very limited because sample preparations such as making cryosections are difficult. Moreover, the amount of neurotransmitters in small tissues is usually very small and their ionization efficiency is very low.
Therefore, the objective of this research is to develop methods to visualize amino neurotransmitters in Drosophila adult brain using MALDI-IMS, since Drosophila melanogaster is one of the most popular model organisms in neurodegenerative disease researches. Tissue preparation, derivatization procedure, and analytical methods were optimized. As a result, the distributions of dopamine, GABA and serotonin with high spatial resolution were successfully observed. In the future, it is expected that the current method can be applied to visualize more amino neurotransmitters, which will support the neurodegenerative disease researches using Drosophila melanogaster as well as other model organisms.