. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 Dec 1.

Published in final edited form as: Trends Analyt Chem. 2023 Oct 14;169:117344. doi: 10.1016/j.trac.2023.117344

Table I.

Overview of IMS Platforms Commonly Employed for Tissue Interrogation

	Ion Source	Matrix	Sample Preparation Time	Source Vacuum Requirements	Spatial Resolution	Molecular Class	Applications
MALDI	Laser	Yes	1 hour	Intermediate-High Vacuum	<1μm possible,¹³ 10–50 μm standard^14,15	Drugs, metabolites, lipids, proteins	Molecular Profiling, Biomarker Discovery, Disease Classification
DESI	ESI	No	0 min	Ambient	10 μm possible (nanoDESI), 50–200 μm standard ^16,17	Drugs, metabolites, lipids, proteins	Margin Evaluation, Disease Classification, Biomarker Discovery
SIMS	Ion beam	No	0 min	High Vacuum	30 nm possible (nanoSIMS), 70 –100 nm standard^18,19	Elements, drugs, metabolites, lipids	Tissue characterization and biomarker discovery, single-cell imaging
LAESI	Laser/ ESI	Yes	30 min	Ambient	20 μm possible, 200–400 μm standard^3,20	Drugs, metabolites, lipids, proteins	Molecular profiling, biomarker discovery
LESA	Micro/ nanoESI	No	0 min	Ambient	~100 μm possible (microLESA), >200 μm standard ^21,22	Metabolites, peptides, proteins	Molecular profiling, biomarker discovery
MALDESI	Laser/ ESI	Yes	1 hour	Intermediate- High Vacuum	50 μm possible, 100–200 μm standard^23,24	Drugs, metabolites, lipids, proteins	Molecular profiling, biomarker discovery
LA-ICP	Laser	No	0 min	Ambient; Vacuum	2.5 μm possible, 30 μm standard ²⁵	Elements	Elemental composition of biological samples

MALDI - Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization; DESI - Desorption Electrospray Ionization; SIMS - Secondary Ionization Mass Spectrometry; LAESI - Laser Ablation Electrospray Ionization; LESA - Liquid Extraction Surface Analysis; MALDESI - Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Electrospray Ionization; LA-ICP - Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma