Automated Quantitative Analysis of Complex Lipidomes by Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry

TLDR

Recent advances in mass spectrometry have revolutionized lipid analysis by simplifying protocols and increasing sensitivity, yet throughput is still limited by labor‑intensive data analysis. The study aims to develop an automated method that enables unattended identification and quantification of lipid molecular species across all major lipid classes. The method employs two‑dimensional chromatographic/mass spectrometric data to automatically identify and quantify lipid species. It automatically quantified over 100 polar lipid species from diverse biological samples with good accuracy and reproducibility, demonstrated a linear response over ~3 orders of magnitude, and allowed analysis of ~35 samples per day, thereby making high‑throughput lipidomics feasible in biology, biotechnology, and medicine.

Abstract

Recent advances in mass spectrometry have revolutionized the analysis of lipid compositions of cells and other biomaterials by simplifying the analytical protocol dramatically and by increasing the sensitivity of detection by several orders of magnitude. However, the throughput of the published mass spectrometric methods is severely limited by data analysis, which requires extensive operator involvement. Consequently, we have developed an automated method that allows unattended identification and quantification of lipid molecular species of all the major lipid classes from a two-dimensional chromatographic/mass spectrometric data set. More than 100 polar lipid species could be automatically quantified from different biological samples with good accuracy and reproducibility. The response was linear over ∼3 orders of magnitude with the equipment used, and ∼35 samples could be analyzed in a day. This method makes high-throughput lipidomics feasible in biology, biotechnology, and medicine.