High-throughput measure of bioactive lipids using non-targeted mass spectrometry

Abstract

Bioactive lipids represent critical intra- and intercellular signaling molecules, and have been implicated in both physiologic homeostasis and disease pathology. Measurement of bioactive lipids is vital toward understanding the role of these signaling intermediates in human biology. Current analytical methods for assessment of bioactive lipids in human biosamples are limited, however, in breath of analytes assayed as well as robustness and time required for measures across thousands of samples. Herein, we describe in comprehensive detail a rapid and robust analytical method using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) for non-targeted measurement of over 7000 bioactive lipids, including eicosanoids and eicosanoid-related metabolites, in human biosamples. These methods may be applied to the study of population scale cohorts to uncover previously unrecognized roles for bioactive lipid species in human biology.