Combined mass spectrometry imaging
methods in which two different
techniques are executed on the same sample have recently been reported
for a number of sample types. Such an approach can be used to examine
the sampling effects of the first technique with a second, higher
resolution method and also combines the advantages of each technique
for a more complete analysis. In this work matrix-assisted laser desorption
ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI MSI) was used to study
the effects of liquid extraction surface analysis (LESA) sampling
on mouse brain tissue. Complementary multivariate analysis techniques
including principal component analysis, non-negative matrix factorization,
and <i>t</i>-distributed stochastic neighbor embedding were
applied to MALDI MS images acquired from tissue which had been sampled
by LESA to gain a better understanding of localized tissue washing
in LESA sampling. It was found that MALDI MS images could be used
to visualize regions sampled by LESA. The variability in sampling
area, spatial precision, and delocalization of analytes in tissue
induced by LESA were assessed using both single-ion images and images
provided by multivariate analysis