Lipid profiling of human plasma from peritoneal dialysis patients using an improved 2D (NP/RP) LC-QToF MS method

An improved online two-dimensional liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (2D LC-QToF MS) system was developed for the lipid profiling of human plasma, in which different lipid classes were separated by the first dimensional normal-phase (NP) LC and different lipid molecular species were separated by the second dimensional reversed-phase (RP) LC. This 2D LC-QToF MS system was built based on a ten-port, two-position valve as the interface, the conditions of which had been optimized and discussed in detail. As two loops were used to trap and transfer the first dimensional elute to the second dimension separately, this new interface suppressed the sample band broadening in the first dimensional column, increased the recovery and repeatability of 2D LC interface, and offered the possibility for the realization of not-stop-flow NP/RP 2D LC system. Finally, 190 endogenous lipid species out of 10 lipid classes were determined within a single run from the plasma of peritoneal patients. This method was also applied to identify the difference in lipid profile between plasma from peritoneal dialysis patients with bad volume status and peritoneal dialysis patients with good volume status. The discovery of 30 potential biomarkers would be helpful to the malnutrition, inflammation, and atherosclerosis syndrome investigation.