TY - JOUR A1 - Kober, Liane A1 - Meyer-Alert, Henriette A1 - Grienitz, Desirée A1 - Hollert, Henner A1 - Frohme, Marcus T1 - Intact cell mass spectrometry as a rapid and specific tool for the differentiation of toxic effects in cell-based ecotoxicological test systems JF - Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry N2 - In the last few decades, MALDI-TOF MS has become a useful technique not only in proteomics, but also as a fast and specific tool for whole cell analysis through intact cell mass spectrometry (IC-MS). The present study evaluated IC-MS as a novel tool for the detection of distinct patterns that can be observed after exposure to a certain toxin or concentration by utilizing the eukaryotic fish cell line RTL-W1. Two different viability assays were performed to define the range for IC-MS investigations, each of which employing copper sulfate, acridine, and β-naphthoflavone (BNF) as model compounds for several classes of environmental toxins. The IC-MS of RTL-W1 cells revealed not only specific spectral patterns for the various toxins, but also that the concentration used had an effect on RTL-W1 profiles. After the exposure with copper sulfate and acridine, the spectra of RTL-W1 showed a significant increase of certain peaks in the higher mass range (m/z >7000), which is probably attributed to the apoptosis of RTL-W1. On the contrary, exposure to BNF showed a distinct change of ion abundances only in the lower mass range (m/z <7000). Furthermore, a set of mass peaks could be identified as a specific biomarker for a single toxin treatment, so IC-MS demonstrates a new method for the distinction of toxic effects in fish cells. Due to fast sample preparation and high throughput, IC-MS offers great potential for ecotoxicological studies to investigate cellular effects of different substances and complex environmental samples. KW - RTL-W1 KW - intact cell mass spectrometry KW - MALDI KW - acridine KW - β-Naphthoflavone KW - copper sulfate Y1 - 2015 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:526-opus4-5900 SN - 1618-2650 VL - 407 IS - 25 SP - 7721 EP - 7731 ER -