Lipids play significant roles in biological system, and the study of lipid metabolisms may provide a new insight into the diagnosis and pathophysiology of diseases. Recent developments in high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques combined with high-performance chromatographic methods provide deep insight into lipid analysis. Addition of ion mobility mass spectrometry orthogonal to LC-MS analysis workflow enhances separation of complex lipids, improve isomers resolution, and intensify confidence in lipid identification and characterization. In this chapter, we describe the principle of travelling wave ion mobility mass spectrometry (TWIMS) and its applications in untargeted LC-MS analysis for characterizing the structural diversity and complexity of lipid species in biological samples.
Keywords: HDMSE; Ion mobility mass spectrometry; LC-MS; Lipidomics; Lipids; MSE; TWIMS.