Long-term performance and stability of molecular shotgun lipidomic analysis of human plasma samples

The stability of the lipid concentration levels in shotgun lipidomics analysis was tracked over a period of 3.5 years. Concentration levels in several lipid classes, such as phospholipids, were determined in human plasma lipid extracts. Impact of the following factors on the analysis was investigated: sample amount, internal standard amount, and sample dilution factor. Moreover, the reproducibility of lipid profiles obtained in both polarity modes was evaluated. Total number of samples analyzed was approximately 6800 and 7300 samples in negative and positive ion modes, respectively, out of which 610 and 639 instrument control samples were used in stability calculations. The assessed shotgun lipidomics approach showed to be remarkably robust and reproducible, requiring no batch corrections. Coefficients of variation (CVs) of lipid mean concentration measured with optimized analytical parameters were typically less than 15%. The high reproducibility indicated that no lipid degradation occurred during the monitored time period.