Co-Incorporated Mesoporous Carbon Material-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Ion Source as an Online Interface of In Vivo Microdialysis Coupled with Mass Spectrometry

The combination of microdialysis and mass spectrometry (MS) provides the potential for rapidly monitoring diverse metabolites in vivo. Unfortunately, the high concentration of salt in biological microdialysates hindered the sensitive and online detection of these small molecular compounds. In this study, we synthesized Co-incorporated mesoporous carbon material (Co-NC) and developed a Co-NC-assisted laser desorption/ionization (LDI) ion source as an online interface of in vivo microdialysis coupled with MS for the direct analysis of diverse metabolites in microdialysates. The Co-NC could be used as a matrix for surface-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (SALDI MS) analysis of small molecular compounds, even under high concentration salt conditions. The Co-NC possessed the adsorption ability for small molecular compounds, and it was believed that the adsorption ability of Co-NC might separate the analytes from the salt in microdialysates at a microscopic level, which might facilitate the desorption and ionization of the analytes and finally improved the salt-tolerance ability as a matrix. Furthermore, the Co-NC-assisted LDI ion source as a novel interface of in vivo microdialysis coupled with MS has been applied to the online monitoring of liver metabolites from the CCl₄-induced liver injury rat model for the first time.