Application of mass spectrometry in single-cell metabolomics

<p indent="0mm">Single-cell metabolomics can investigate cellular heterogeneity, playing a pivotal role in understanding how organisms alter their states in response to environmental changes. Mass spectrometry, with its advantages of high sensitivity and high throughput, has been extensively utilized in the context of single-cell metabolomics. Researchers have distinct requirements for mass spectrometry in terms of metabolite coverage, analytical throughput, and spatial information of metabolites, depending on the questions related to life science they aim to address. This paper starts from these three demands, reviews the development and application of mass spectrometry technology in the field of single-cell metabolomics in recent years, and offers our prospective of this field.