Microarray and mass spectrometry-based Methodology for lipid profiling of tissues and cell cultures

The recent developments in mass spectrometry have revealed the importance of lipids as biomarkers in the context of dif-ferent diseases and as indicators of the cell’s homeostasis. However, further advances are required to unveil the complex relationships between lipid classes and lipid species with proteins. Here we present a new methodology that combines micro-arrays with mass spectrometry to obtain the lipid fingerprint of samples of different nature in a standardized and fast way, with minimal sample consumption. As a proof of concept, we use the methodology to obtain the lipid fingerprint of 20 rat tissues and to create a lipid library for tissue classification. Then, we combine those results with immunohistochemistry and enzymatic assays to unveil the relationship between some lipid species and two enzymes. Finally, we demonstrate the per-formance of the methodology to explore changes in lipid composition of the nucleus accumbens from mice subjected to two lipid diets