LC-MS-Based Lipidomics and Automated Identification of Lipids Using the LipidBlast In-Silico MS/MS Library

Methods Mol Biol. 2017:1609:149-170. doi: 10.1007/978-1-4939-6996-8_14.

Abstract

This protocol describes the analysis, specifically the identification, of blood plasma lipids. Plasma lipids are extracted using methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE), methanol, and water followed by separation and data acquisition of isolated lipids using reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled to quadrupole/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (RPLC-QTOFMS) operated in MS/MS mode. For lipid identification, acquired MS/MS spectra are converted to the mascot generic format (MGF) followed by library search using the in-silico MS/MS library LipidBlast. Using this approach, lipid classes, carbon-chain lengths, and degree of unsaturation of fatty-acid components are annotated.

Keywords: Identification; LipidBlast; Lipidomics; Lipids; Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry; Tandem mass spectrometry.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Chromatography, Liquid*
  • Computational Biology / methods*
  • Lipids / analysis
  • Lipids / chemistry*
  • Metabolomics* / methods
  • Software
  • Tandem Mass Spectrometry*
  • User-Computer Interface
  • Workflow

Substances

  • Lipids