Mass Spectrometry Imaging Using Dynamically Harmonized FT-ICR at Million Resolving Power: Rationalizing and Optimizing Sample Preparation and Instrumental Parameters

MALDI mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) is a powerful analytical method giving access to the 2D localizations of compounds in a thin section of a sample. To properly discern isobaric compounds in complex biological samples, dynamically harmonized ICR cell (ParaCell©) has been introduce to achieve extreme spectral resolution. However, high resolution MS images realized on a 9.4T FTICR High resolution instrument with recommended parameters suffered from an abnormal shifting of m/z ratios pixel to pixel. Resulting datasets show poor mass accuracy measurements and resolutions under estimations. By following the behavior of the Total Ion Current in function of the number of laser shots, the abnormal mass shifting phenomenon has been linked to the stability of the Total Ion Current (TIC) during images acquisitions. An optimization of laser parameters is proposed in order to limit the observed mass shift to retain machine specifications during MSI analyses. It is also shown that the method has been successfully employed to realize quality MS images with resolution above 1,000,000 in the lipid mass range across the whole image.