Abstract

Obtaining fast screening information on molecular composition of a tissue sample is of great
importance for a disease biomarkers search and for online surgery control. In this study, high resolution
mass spectrometry analysis of eutopic and ectopic endometrium tissues (90 samples) is done using
direct tissue spray mass spectrometry in both positive and negative ion modes. The most abundant
peaks in the both ion modes are those corresponding to lipids. Species of three lipid classes are
observed, phosphatidylcholines (PC), sphingomyelins (SM) and phosphoethanolamines (PE). Direct
tissue analysis gives mainly information on PC and SM lipids (29 species) in positive ion mode and PC,
SM and PE lipids (50 species) in negative ion mode which gives complementary data for endometriosis
foci differentiation. The biggest differences were found for phospholipids with polyunsaturated acyls
and alkils. Although, tissue spray shows itself as appropriate tool for tissue investigation, caution
should be paid to the interpretation of mass spectra because of their higher complexity with more
possible adducts formation and multiple interferences must be taken into account. The present work
extends the application of direct tissue analysis for the rapid differentiation between endometriotic
tissues of different foci.

Chagovets_et_al-2017-Scientific_Reports.pdf