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Absolute quantification of cholesterol from thin tissue sections by silver-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry imaging

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Abstract

Cholesterol is essential to all animal life, and its dysregulation is observed in many diseases. For some of these, the precise determination of cholesterol’s histological location and absolute abundance at cellular length scales within tissue samples would open the door to a more fundamental understanding of the role of cholesterol in disease onset and progression. We have developed a fast and simple method for absolute quantification of cholesterol within brain samples based on the sensitive detection and mapping of cholesterol by silver-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry imaging (AgLDI MSI) from thin tissue sections. Reproducible calibration curves were generated by depositing a range of cholesterol-D7 concentrations on brain homogenate tissue sections combined with the homogeneous spray deposition of a non-animal steroid reference standard detectable by AgLDI MSI to minimize experimental variability. Results obtained from serial brain sections gave consistent cholesterol quantitative values in very good agreement with those obtained with other mass spectrometry-based methods.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Pr. Jean-Francois Masson (Dept of Chemistry, Université de Montréal) for unlimited access to the metal sputtering system used in this study.

Funding

P. Chaurand received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC-RGPIN-2021-03125). P. Chaurand and L.M. Munter received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR-PJT-162302).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, succursale Centre-ville, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3J7, Canada

    Zari Saadati Nezhad, Juan Pablo Salazar, Rachel S. Pryce & Pierre Chaurand

  2. Dept of Pharmacology & Therapeutics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    Lisa M. Munter

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  1. Zari Saadati Nezhad
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  2. Juan Pablo Salazar
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Correspondence to Pierre Chaurand.

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All animals used were obtained from the Institut de Recherche en Immunologie et en Cancérologie (Université de Montréal) animal housing service. Animals were ethically sacrificed following internationally recognized guidelines after ethics approval from the Université de Montréal. The authors declare no competing interests.

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Nezhad, Z.S., Salazar, J.P., Pryce, R.S. et al. Absolute quantification of cholesterol from thin tissue sections by silver-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry imaging. Anal Bioanal Chem 414, 6947–6954 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-04262-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-022-04262-6

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