Comprehensive mass spectrometry lipidomics of human biofluids and ocular tissues

Evaluating lipid profiles in human tissues and biofluids is critical in identifying lipid metabolites in dysregulated metabolic pathways. Due to various chemical characteristics, single-run lipid analysis has not yet been documented. Such approach is essential for analyzing pathology-related lipid metabolites. Age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of vision loss in western countries, is emblematic of this limitation. Several studies have identified alterations in individual lipids but the majority are based on targeted approaches. In this study, we analyzed and identified approximately 500 lipid species in human biofluids (plasma and erythrocytes) and ocular tissues (retina and retinal pigment epithelium) using the complementarity of hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) and reversed-phase chromatography (RPC), coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry. For that, lipids were extracted from human eye globes and blood from 10 subjects and lipidomic analysis was carried out through analysis in HILIC and RPC, alternately. Furthermore, we illustrate the advantages and disadvantages of both techniques for lipid characterization. RPC showed greater sensitivity in hydrophobicity-based lipid separation, detecting diglycerides, triglycerides, cholesterol, and cholesteryl esters, whereas no signal of these molecules was obtained in HILIC. However, due to coelution, RPC was less effective in separating polar lipids like phospholipids, which were separated effectively in HILIC in both ionization modes. The complementary nature of these analytical approaches was essential for the detection and identification of lipid classes/subclasses, which can then provide distinct insights into lipid metabolism, a determinant of the pathophysiology of several diseases involving lipids, notably age-related macular degeneration.