Imaging mass spectrometry identifies prognostic ganglioside species in rodent intracranial transplants of glioma and medulloblastoma

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization (MALDI) imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI-MSI) allows us to investigate the distribution of lipid molecules within tissues. We used MALDI-MSI to identify prognostic gangliosides in tissue sections of rat intracranial allografts of rat glioma and mouse intracranial xenografts of human medulloblastoma. In the healthy adult rodent brain, GM1 and GD1 were the main types of glycolipids. Both gangliosides were absent in both intracranial transplants. The ganglioside GM3 was not present in the healthy adult brain but was highly expressed in rat glioma allografts. In combination with tandem mass spectrometry GM3 (d18:1/C24:0) was identified as the most abundant ganglioside species in the glioma allotransplant. By contrast, mouse xenografts of human medulloblastoma were characterized by prominent expression of the ganglioside GM2 (d18:0/C18:0). Together, these data demonstrate that tissue-based MALDI-MSI of gangliosides is able to discriminate between different brain tumors and may be a useful clinical tool for their classification and grading.