Tissue , generally imaging techniques

Since the first edition of this book in 2007 there has been a considerable increase in the ability to apply MALDI-MS to the analysis of lipids, and this has been clearly reflected by the numbers of reports on the subject made during the past decade (see Figure 7.1). Whilst interest in Upids has emerged for a variety of reasons, most notably their potential role(s) as markers of disease (as discussed below), another important factor here has been the steady increase in the use of MS imaging techniques in general [1]. The use of these methods, and in particular their application to the spatially resolved analysis of metabolite distribution in thin tissue slices, are discussed in Chapter 4, Section 4.7.1 of this book. 

In general, the acoustic properties of biological tissue show much greater variation than their optical properties. This means that acoustic images can be obtained without the need for any staining. By itself this is not a decisive advantage, because sophisticated interference contrast and other techniques... 

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