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MALDI imaging as a tool for environmental monitoring: Spatial tracking of emerging contaminants
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This review paper highlights a scanning technology that can create detailed maps showing exactly where pollutants like pesticides, PFAS ("forever chemicals"), and microplastics build up inside organs and tissues—rather than just giving an average amount, like older methods do. This matters because even low levels of these contaminants in the environment can concentrate in specific body parts, potentially causing more harm than we'd expect, and this tool could help scientists better understand those risks in humans, animals, and plants.
This review presents MALDI mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) as a label-free technique that maps emerging contaminants inside biological samples and shows where they accumulate in organisms. This spatial information is essential in a One Health context, as pollutants such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, PFAS, and micro- and nanoplastics can appear at low environmental levels but concentrate on specific tissues, increasing ecological and health risks. Unlike LC/GC-MS, which provides average concentrations after homogenization, MALDI-MSI preserves tissue structure and links contaminants with local biological responses. Applications in plants, aquatic organisms, invertebrates, and human tissues are summarized. Current limitations, including matrix interference, ion suppression, and quantification challenges, are discussed together with future perspectives such as 3D imaging, MALDI-2, ion mobility, and semi-mobile monitoring approaches.
More Papers Like This
Environmental Chemistry of Emerging Contaminants and Their Anatomic Pathology Implications: From Molecular Perturbation to Tissue Lesions and Organ Dysfunction
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This review pulls together existing research to show how everyday contaminants like microplastics, "forever chemicals" (PFAS), and drug residues—now found in our air, water, food, and even body tissues—can actually damage cells and organs, leading to problems like inflammation, scarring, and in some cases, cancer-related changes. It matters because these substances are nearly impossible to avoid, and this paper argues we need better tools to connect environmental exposure directly to real, measurable harm in the body, not just theoretical risk.
In situ imaging of microplastics in living organisms based on mass spectrometry technology
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Researchers reviewed mass spectrometry-based imaging techniques for detecting microplastics inside living organisms, comparing different ion source methods for their ability to visualize plastic particles in biological tissue. They found that these techniques can provide both spatial distribution maps and chemical composition analysis of microplastics at high resolution. The study suggests that mass spectrometry imaging could become a powerful tool for understanding how microplastics accumulate and distribute within living systems.
A PTCA LabelingMethod for Direct LDI-MSI of PolystyreneNanospheres
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Scientists developed a new imaging technique that lets them track exactly where plastic nanoparticles end up in the body and see how they disrupt normal chemistry at the same time. Using this method in mice, they found that plastic particles entering the bloodstream mostly collected in the lungs and triggered changes in metabolism, while particles breathed into the lungs stayed there for weeks, causing lasting disruptions. This matters because it gives researchers a powerful new tool to study how the micro/nanoplastics we're increasingly exposed to might affect our health over time.
Spatial Detection of Microsphere Polystyrene Plastics and Molecular Remodeling within a Full-Body Mouse with MALDI Trapped Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry Imaging.
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Researchers used MALDI mass spectrometry imaging with ion mobility to map polystyrene particle distribution and lipid changes simultaneously across whole mouse body sections, revealing organ-specific metabolic responses — including signs of barrier disruption in the stomach, impaired lipid export in the liver, and disrupted sphingolipid metabolism in the heart — following oral PS exposure.
Innovations in Environmental Analytical Chemistry: Transition from Conventional Techniques to Nano-enabled Sensing Technologies
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This review rounds up recent research on tiny "nanosensor" tools that can detect harmful pollutants—like heavy metals, pesticides, drug residues, PFAS ("forever chemicals"), and microplastics—in water, soil, or air much faster and cheaper than traditional lab testing. Because these sensors can be used on-site instead of requiring samples to be shipped to a lab, they could make it much easier to catch contamination early, before it builds up in our food and water supplies and affects our health. The technology is promising but still developing, with challenges around reliability and safety that need to be worked out before widespread use.
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When a large batch of papers lands in the Atlas, we read through it and send a short write-up of what stood out.