Oxidative Lipidomics: Analysis of Oxidized Lipids and Lipid Peroxidation in Biological Systems with Relevance to Health and Disease

Abstract

Oxidation of polyunsaturated (PUFA) lipids, catalyzed by free radicals either by non-enzymatic or enzymatic mechanisms, is highly critical in living cells during toxicity, pathophysiological events and disease states, radiation exposure, xenobiotic and drug metabolism, and aging. However, the methods of analysis to characterize the structures of different peroxidized lipids in cells (including PUFA, either free or esterified in the cellular membrane PLs) and the oxidative lipid metabolites, and determination of the extent of lipid peroxidation in the biological systems, are challenging and tedious due to the choice/availability of a suitable analytical method and also the complexity of different peroxidation products of lipids formed in a temporal scale which is system-dependent. Therefore, the current chapter discusses various available analytical methods/techniques to analyze the oxidized lipids and determine lipid peroxidation in the biological systems with an emphasis on health and disease. Finally, the importance of oxidative lipidomics has been discussed as a rapidly emerging discipline of measuring oxidative stress.