文摘
Recent advances in mass spectrometry have revolutionized the analysis of lipid compositions of cells and otherbiomaterials by simplifying the analytical protocol dramatically and by increasing the sensitivity of detection byseveral orders of magnitude. However, the throughput ofthe published mass spectrometric methods is severelylimited by data analysis, which requires extensive operatorinvolvement. Consequently, we have developed an automated method that allows unattended identification andquantification of lipid molecular species of all the majorlipid classes from a two-dimensional chromatographic/mass spectrometric data set. More than 100 polar lipidspecies could be automatically quantified from differentbiological samples with good accuracy and reproducibility.The response was linear over ~3 orders of magnitude withthe equipment used, and ~35 samples could be analyzedin a day. This method makes high-throughput lipidomicsfeasible in biology, biotechnology, and medicine.