Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 29, 2026
Cellular Lipid Extraction for Targeted Stable Isotope Dilution Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry Analysis
Published on: November 17, 2011
A simple liquid extraction protocol for overcoming the ion suppression of triacylglycerols by phospholipids in liquid
Pedro Araujo1, Ephrem Tilahun1, Joar Fjørtoft Breivik1
1National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES), PO Box 2029 Nordnes, N-5817 Bergen, Norway.
Abstract:
It is well-known that triacylglycerol (TAG) ions are suppressed by phospholipid (PL) ions in regiospecific analysis of TAG by mass spectrometry (MS). Hence, it is essential to remove the PL during sample preparation prior to MS analysis. The present article proposes a cost-effective liquid-liquid extraction (LLE) method to remove PL from TAG in different kinds of biological samples by using methanol, hexane and water. High performance thin layer chromatography confirmed the lack of PL in krill oil and salmon liver samples, submitted to the proposed LLE protocol, and liquid chromatography tandem MS confirmed that the identified TAG ions were highly enhanced after implementing the LLE procedure.
