MALDI-MS imaging in the study of glomerulonephritis

Glomerulonephritis (GNs) are one of the most frequent causes of chronic kidney disease (CKD), a renal condition that often leads to end-stage renal failure, and a careful assessment of these diseases is essential for prognostic and therapeutic purposes. The application of MALDI-MSI directly on bioptic renal tissue represents a new stimulating perspective and facilitates the detection of specific proteomic indicators that are directly correlated with the pathological alterations that occur within the glomeruli during the development of glomerulonephritis. Here, we describe the standard workflow for the MALDI-MSI analysis of clinical fresh-frozen and FFPE renal biopsies and highlight how the obtained molecular information, when combined with histology, can be used to detect specific protein markers of GNs.