As the lipidomics field continues to advance, self-evaluation within the community is critical. Here, we performed an interlaboratory comparison exercise for lipidomics using Standard Reference Material (SRM) 1950-Metabolites in Frozen Human Plasma, a commercially available reference material. The interlaboratory study comprised 31 diverse laboratories, with each laboratory using a different lipidomics workflow. A total of 1,527 unique lipids were measured across all laboratories and consensus location estimates and associated uncertainties were determined for 339 of these lipids measured at the sum composition level by five or more participating laboratories. These evaluated lipids detected in SRM 1950 serve as community-wide benchmarks for intra- and interlaboratory quality control and method validation. These analyses were performed using nonstandardized laboratory-independent workflows. The consensus locations were also compared with a previous examination of SRM 1950 by the LIPID MAPS consortium. While the central theme of the interlaboratory study was to provide values to help harmonize lipids, lipid mediators, and precursor measurements across the community, it was also initiated to stimulate a discussion regarding areas in need of improvement.

BackgroundLipids are ubiquitous and serve numerous biological functions; thus lipids have been shown to have great potential as candidates for elucidating biomarkers and pathway perturbations associated with disease. Methods expanding coverage of the lipidome increase the likelihood of biomarker discovery and could lead to more comprehensive understanding of disease etiology.ResultsWe introduce LipidMatch, an R-based tool for lipid identification for liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry workflows. LipidMatch currently has over 250,000 lipid species spanning 56 lipid types contained in in silico fragmentation libraries. Unique fragmentation libraries, compared to other open source software, include oxidized lipids, bile acids, sphingosines, and previously uncharacterized adducts, including ammoniated cardiolipins. LipidMatch uses rule-based identification. For each lipid type, the user can select which fragments must be observed for identification. Rule-based identification allows for correct annotation of lipids based on the fragments observed, unlike typical identification based solely on spectral similarity scores, where over-reporting structural details that are not conferred by fragmentation data is common. Another unique feature of LipidMatch is ranking lipid identifications for a given feature by the sum of fragment intensities. For each lipid candidate, the intensities of experimental fragments with exact mass matches to expected in silico fragments are summed. The lipid identifications with the greatest summed intensity using this ranking algorithm were comparable to other lipid identification software annotations, MS-DIAL and Greazy. For example, for features with identifications from all 3 software, 92% of LipidMatch identifications by fatty acyl constituents were corroborated by at least one other software in positive mode and 98% in negative ion mode.ConclusionsLipidMatch allows users to annotate lipids across a wide range of high resolution tandem mass spectrometry experiments, including imaging experiments, direct infusion experiments, and experiments employing liquid chromatography. LipidMatch leverages the most extensive in silico fragmentation libraries of freely available software. When integrated into a larger lipidomics workflow, LipidMatch may increase the probability of finding lipid-based biomarkers and determining etiology of disease by covering a greater portion of the lipidome and using annotation which does not over-report biologically relevant structural details of identified lipid molecules.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12859-017-1744-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Untargeted omics analyses aim to comprehensively characterize biomolecules within a biological system. Changes in the presence or quantity of these biomolecules can indicate important biological perturbations, such as those caused by disease. With current technological advancements, the entire genome can now be sequenced; however, in the burgeoning fields of lipidomics, only a subset of lipids can be identified. The recent emergence of high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HR-MS/MS), in combination with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography, has resulted in an increased coverage of the lipidome. Nevertheless, identifications from MS/MS are generally limited by the number of precursors which can be selected for fragmentation during chromatographic elution. Therefore, we developed the software IE-Omics to automate iterative exclusion (IE), where selected precursors using data-dependent topN analyses are excluded in sequential injections. In each sequential injection, unique precursors are fragmented until HR-MS/MS spectra of all ions above a user-defined intensity threshold are acquired. IE-Omics was applied to lipidomic analyses in Red Cross plasma and substantia nigra tissue. Coverage of the lipidome was drastically improved using IE. When applying IE-Omics to Red Cross plasma and substantia nigra lipid extracts in positive ion mode, 69 % and 40 % more molecular identifications were obtained, respectively. In addition, applying IE-Omics to a lipidomics workflow increased the coverage of trace species, including odd-chained and short-chained diacylglycerides and oxidized lipid species. By increasing the coverage of the lipidome, applying IE to a lipidomics workflow increases the probability of finding biomarkers and provides additional information for determining etiology of disease.

The hepatic tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle is central to integrating macronutrient metabolism and is closely coupled to cellular respiration, free radical generation, and inflammation. Oxidative flux through the TCA cycle is induced during hepatic insulin resistance, in mice and humans with simple steatosis, reflecting early compensatory remodeling of mitochondrial energetics. We hypothesized that progressive severity of hepatic insulin resistance and the onset of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) would impair oxidative flux through the hepatic TCA cycle. Mice (C57/BL6) were fed a high-trans-fat high-fructose diet (TFD) for 8 wk to induce simple steatosis and NASH by 24 wk. In vivo fasting hepatic mitochondrial fluxes were determined by(13)C-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based isotopomer analysis. Hepatic metabolic intermediates were quantified using mass spectrometry-based targeted metabolomics. Hepatic triglyceride accumulation and insulin resistance preceded alterations in mitochondrial metabolism, since TCA cycle fluxes remained normal during simple steatosis. However, mice with NASH had a twofold induction (P< 0.05) of mitochondrial fluxes (μmol/min) through the TCA cycle (2.6 ± 0.5 vs. 5.4 ± 0.6), anaplerosis (9.1 ± 1.2 vs. 16.9 ± 2.2), and pyruvate cycling (4.9 ± 1.0 vs. 11.1 ± 1.9) compared with their age-matched controls. Induction of the TCA cycle activity during NASH was concurrent with blunted ketogenesis and accumulation of hepatic diacylglycerols (DAGs), ceramides (Cer), and long-chain acylcarnitines, suggesting inefficient oxidation and disposal of excess free fatty acids (FFA). Sustained induction of mitochondrial TCA cycle failed to prevent accretion of "lipotoxic" metabolites in the liver and could hasten inflammation and the metabolic transition to NASH.

The goal of this research was to find the most comprehensive lipid extraction of blood plasma, while also providing adequate aqueous preparation for metabolite analysis. Comparisons have been made previously of the Folch, Bligh-Dyer, and Matyash lipid extractions; furthermore, this paper provides an additional comparison of a phospholipid removal plate for analysis. This plate was used for lipid extraction rather than its intended use in lipid removal for polar analysis, and it proves to be robust for targeted lipid analysis. Folch and Matyash provided reproducible recovery over a range of lipid classes, however the Matyash aqueous layer compared well to a typical methanol preparation for polar metabolite analysis. Thus, the Matyash method is the best choice for an untargeted biphasic extraction for metabolomics and lipidomics in blood plasma.