Lipids: Metabolism, Nutrition & Health

Biography

Biography: Mesut Bilgin

Abstract

  Lipids   are essential molecules of every living organism. Lipids assemble bilayers, determine the architectu re of  cellular  membr anes, and orchestrate numerous biological processes. Every living organism is equipped with m etabolic pathways that produce structurally and functionally highly diverse lipid species. The manners of regulations in lipid  metabolism  are poorly illuminated, yet of pivotal importance since imbalance in the lipid metabolism has been linked to pathophysiology o  f numerous diseases. The lipidome – the lipid repertoire of biological materials – includes species that differ in types of head groups, presence, length, and number of  fatty acyl  chains, numbers and positions of double bonds, and presence of additional modifications such as glycosylation and hydroxylation  etc. Obviously the combination of these gives rise to thousands of lipid species. Lipidomics methodologies enable to monitor lipid metabolism via systematic and quantitative measurements of individual lipid species in complex mixtures. Here, we present the shotgun lipidomics methodology, an advanced  mass spectrometry -based approach that enables absolute quantification. Shotgun lipidomics allows in a single setup to identify and quantify hundreds of lipid species belonging to 15-20 lipid classes. In brief, sample lipids are extracted into organic solvents and directly infused into  mass spectrometer  via electrospray ionizatio n. Lipids are separated and identified based on the unique mass to charge  ratios of their ions and fragmentation patterns, and absolutely and accurately quantified against internal standards. The simple and robust setup makes this approach particularly suited for high throughput lipidomics analysis. The typical workflow, challenges, and considerations on the shotgun lipidomics will be highlighted.