A new direction in metabolomics: Analysis of the central nervous system based on spatially resolved metabolomics

The intricate physiological and pathological activities of the central nervous system (CNS) entail the translocation and regulation of a diverse set of biochemicals. Metabolomics is employed for the detection and annotation of metabolic events involved in biological pathways, allowing a better understanding of systems biology. Spatially resolved metabolomics has been recently developed to determine the association between the spatial distribution of metabolites and complex functional microregions of heterogeneous tissues. Due to its unique advantages, spatially resolved metabolomics is being increasingly employed in CNS research. This review discusses the principles and processes of spatially resolved metabolomics, focusing on some of the latest technological advances and its emerging application in the CNS field and summarizes our current understanding of this developing area, in an attempt to guide future research on this topic.