Single Cell MALDI-MS Imaging of Lipids and Proteins in Senescent Fibroblasts.

In this study, we evaluate the lipidomic and proteomic profiles of human lung fibroblasts (hLFs) to interrogate changes occurring due to senescence. To study single cell populations, a comparison of cell adhered onto slides utilizing poly-D-lysine versus centrifugal force deposition was first analyzed to determine whether specific alterations were observed between preparations. The poly-D-lysine approach was than utilized to interrogate the lipidome of the cell populations and further evaluate potential applications of the MALDI-IHC platform for single-cell level analyses. Altogether, our results show the ability to detect lipids implicated in senescence and alterations to protein expression between normal and senescent fibroblast populations. This report is the first time that the MALDI-IHC system has been utilized at a single-cell level for analyzing the expression of proteins.