Mass spectrometry imaging of adipose tissue lipidome maps lineage-specific metabolite profiles

Adipocyte subtypes may drive a heterogeneous distribution of lipids in adipose tissue. Adipocytes from the transient receptor potential cation channel subfamily V member 1 (Trpv1) lineage are one such subtype (1). We mapped subcutaneous white adipose from Trpv1^cremT/mG mice with matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) coupled mass spectrometry (MS) (Fig. 1A). Total ion current identified specific peaks with signal-to-noise-ratios over 10 (Fig. 1B). Confocal microscopy identified specific m/z peaks associated with the Trpv1 lineage (Fig. 1C). We demonstrated that the lipidomic landscape of adipose tissue can be associated with specific cell types and used to define tissue structure.

Fig. 1.

MALDI imaging of Trpv1^cremT/mG adipose tissue. (A) TIC image of inguinal subcutaneous adipose tissue from of Trpv1^cremT/mG mouse. (B) TIC histogram for of Trpv1^cremT/mG adipose tissue. (C) Fluorescence imaging of Trpv1^cremT/mG adipose tissue used to define regions for m/z peaks associated with the Trpv1 lineage.

Equipment: Bruker timsTOF flex.

Data availability: Source data and code are freely available at https://github.com/ChrPotts/SpatialMetabolomics_MHIR-BPGbio_2026.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare the following competing interests: SS, JA-H, NRN, and MAK are and/or were employees of BPGbio Inc. The other author declares that they have no conflicts of interest with the contents of this article.