Lipoproteins are responsible for the transport of lipids and other nutrients in the circulation and therefore play an important role in lipid metabolism and dyslipidemia. They have also been linked to multiple metabolic disorders including cardiovascular disease, and thus understanding their lipid composition is of crucial importance. Characterization of lipoproteins is a challenging task due to their heterogeneity. In particular, their fractionation is often laborious and time-consuming, making large sets of clinical samples difficult to analyze. We developed and validated lipidomics analysis of lipoproteins including chylomicrons, very low-density, low-density, and high-density lipoproteins. Lipoproteins were first fractionated by polyacrylamide tube gel electrophoresis, and, after liquid-liquid extraction, lipids were analyzed by direct-infusion mass spectrometry. About 100 unique lipid species were detected with good reproducibility and reliability. In addition to their lipid composition, valuable information on the fatty acid composition of lipoproteins and lipids was obtained. The presented method offers in-depth analysis of the lipid as well as fatty acid composition of lipoproteins while allowing a good sample throughput. It is thus especially suited for studying lipid associated diseases in clinical cohorts.
Keywords: fatty acids; lipidomics; lipids; plasma lipoproteins; tube gel electrophoresis.