Mass Spectrometry Flow Cytometry Technology

Flow Cytometry is the most classic single-cell analysis technique, which can detect multiple parameters in single cells, thus conducting subgroup and functional analysis of samples. Traditional flow cytometry is generally based on the detection of fluorescence emission spectra. Since the emission spectra of fluorescent groups are relatively short, overlap often occurs between the emissions of different fluorophores during multi-parameter detection. This can lead to limited detection throughput and increased detection difficulty. To ensure data accuracy, fluorescence compensation adjustment must be carried out during multi-parameter detection, greatly increasing the complexity of detection. This is a technical problem that traditional fluorescence flow cytometry has difficulty overcoming, and Mass Cytometry is able to solve this problem well.

 

Mass Cytometry is a flow cytometry technique that uses mass spectrometry principles to conduct multi-parameter detection of single cells, capable of identifying over 50 markers at the single-cell level. Compared with flow cytometry, mass cytometry can accurately distinguish between different atomic masses of metal isotopes without channel overlap. This not only improves the requirement for complex compensation matrices, but also allows for the simultaneous analysis of more cell characteristics than fluorescence flow cytometry.

 

The core of Mass Cytometry technology is the fusion of flow cytometry with Inductively Coupled Plasma Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (ICP-TOF-MS). The principle is to first label antibodies with stable metal isotopes, then specifically bind the antibodies to corresponding markers on the cell surface, achieving the goal of labeling the cells with metal elements. The labeled cells form a single-cell droplet flow through the nebulizer, which is desolvated and ionized when passing through the plasma torch. Then, common biological elements (such as C, N, etc.) are removed through the radio frequency quadrupole, and heavy metal ions are enriched. Finally, they are introduced vertically into the time-of-flight mass analyzer and captured by the detector at different times according to the different mass-to-charge ratios. In this way, the type of cell marker (type of metal label element) and expression level (strength of metal label signal) become corresponding data for subsequent data analysis.

 

Mass Cytometry technology, as a new type of high-dimensional multi-parameter single-cell analysis technology, can accurately and comprehensively analyze cell group immunotyping and intracellular signal networks. It has been widely used in many fields such as biomarkers, disease typing, cell therapy, drug research and development, and other biological and medical research. MtoZ Biolabs' single-cell mass cytometry technology analysis adopts metal-labeled antibody technology, which can simultaneously detect 51 target proteins and analyze at least 10^5 cells at the same time. It has high throughput, low cost, fast results, and is of great significance for studying the changes of cell subgroups.