2008 Volume 37 Issue 3 Pages 317-326
Mass spectrometry (MS) is one of powerful tools for detections and identifications of unknown molecules having their own masses and structures. Before the development of softionizations such as electro-spray (ESI) and matrixassisted laser desorption ionizations (MALDI) invented by Prof. JB. Fenn and Dr. Koichi Tanaka, respectively, the MS was a restricted instrument for the detection and identification of low molecular organic compounds by gas chromatography/MS and direct MS using electron impact ionization and chemical ionization methods. Therefore, the MS had been only an apparatus which organic and inorganic chemists used to analyze low molecules. After the developments of ESI and MALDI at 1980s, we could apply these modern MS techniques to detect and characterize unknown and interesting high molecular compounds such as protein, peptides, nucleosides and com- plex lipids in body fluids and organs. Not only researchers but also medical doctors were surprised by their big capabilities of the modern MS to detect and identify the structures of high molecules. And so we could acquire new information for the understanding of the etiology of diseases by the modern MS. In this paper, I would like to summarize the principle of MS and its ionization and explanations of special terms for understanding of MS.
