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Updated: Mar 2, 2026

Author Spotlight: Quantification of Complex Lipidomic Samples Using Stable Isotope Labeling
Published on: August 23, 2024
Triacylglycerol regioisomers in human milk resolved with an algorithmic novel electrospray ionization tandem mass
Heikki Kallio1, Matts Nylund1, Pontus Boström2
1Food Chemistry and Food Development, Department of Biochemistry, University of Turku, FI-20014 Turku, Finland.
Abstract:
A highly sensitive mass spectrometric (MS) method was developed and validated to analyze ratios of regioisomeric triacylglycerols (TAGs) in fats and oils. UPLC resolution of lithiated TAGs followed by daughter scan MS/MS of positive ions revealed several indicative ions for quantitative analysis. Reference TAGs containing C14-C20 fatty acids (FAs) showed good linear response. Analysis of Finnish and Chinese pooled human milk samples revealed hundreds of regioisomeric TAGs. At least 64mol% of the TAGs were quantified with relative standard deviation <17%. When present in the same TAG molecule together with C18 FAs, palmitic acid was typically in the sn-2 position. When together with FAs 10:0, 12:0, 14:0, 20:1 and 20:2, the sn-2 preference of 16:0 was less clear. Oleic acid occupied typically the sn-1/sn-3 positions but when together with FAs 20:1, 20:2, 18:2, 14:1, 12:0 or 10:0 the positioning of 18:1 did not follow these rules.
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