Quantitative Profiling of Lipid Mediators by Liquid Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry -Development and Applications-

Lipid mediators, including eicosanoids and the platelet activating factor (PAF), are produced from common precursor phospholipids in mammalian tissues and cells. They play diverse roles in a variety of pathological and physiological contexts. For comprehensive lipid mediator profiling purposes, we have developed a liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC-MS) multiplex quantitation method that covers eicosanoids and PAF. In this article, we describe the development of the LC-MS system, the sample pretreatment procedure optimized for this system, and application of lipid mediator profiling in macrophages and animal disease models. Also, we briefly introduce our perspective on label-free differential phospholipid analysis using ultra performance liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS).