Human Blood Plasma Lipidome: Opportunities and Prospects of Its Analysis in Medical Chemistry

Abstract

The emerging development of new analytical mass spectrometry technologies resulted in the possibility of a detailed fractionation of biologically important compounds. As applied to lipids, it promoted the development of opportunities for identification of the whole set of lipid molecular species, or the lipidome of a biological object. The review summarizes approaches to and results of human blood plasma lipidome analysis in medical studies. The main principal approaches of MS lipid analysis are considered, including targeted lipidomics after preliminary HPLC or direct MS of the whole lipid extract, termed recently “shotgun lipidomics.” New methods reveal the diversity of individual species (more than 1000) of blood plasma lipids due to many variants of combinations of polar and fatty acid fragments of lipid molecules in each lipid class. Some of them change abundance in different ways in some diseases. Analytical and physiological factors influencing lipidome analysis are also shortly considered, including sample preparation, normalization, and effect of genes associated with lipid metabolism. The prospects of lipidome analysis in clinical studies are noted, as well as the need for standardization of used processes and conditions. Due to the involvement of lipids in many cellular and metabolic processes, their detailed analysis will contribute to unveiling of new biomarkers, as well as to increased understanding of pathogenetic mechanisms of a number of diseases.