A matter of fat: an introduction to lipidomic profiling methods

In recent years, lipidomics or lipid profiling, an extension of metabolomics where the lipid complement of a cell, tissue or organism is measured, has been the recipient of increasing attention as a research tool in a range of diverse disciplines including physiology, lipid biochemistry, clinical biomarker discovery and pathology. The advancement of the field has been driven by the development of analytical technologies, and in particular advances in liquid chromatography mass spectrometry and chemometric methods. In this review, we give an overview of the current methods with which lipid profiling is being performed. The benefits and shortcomings of mass spectrometry both in the presence and absence of chromatographic separation techniques such as liquid-, gas- and thin layer chromatography are explored. Alone these techniques have their limitations but through a combination many of the disadvantages may be overcome providing a valuable analytical tool for a variety of disease processes.