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Expanding lipidomics coverage: effective ultra performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometer methods for detection and quantitation of cardiolipin, phosphatidylglycerol, and lysyl-phosphatidylglycerol

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Abstract

Introduction

Lipidomics can reveal global alterations in a broad class of molecules whose functions are innately linked to physiology. Monitoring changes in the phospholipid composition of biological membranes in response to stressors can aid the development of targeted therapies. However, exact quantitation of cardiolipins is not a straightforward task due to low ionization efficiencies and poor chromatographic separation of these compounds.

Objective

The aim of this study was to develop a quantitative method for the detection of cardiolipins and other phospholipids using both a targeted and untargeted analyses with a Q-Exactive.

Methods

HILIC chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry with parallel reaction monitoring was used to measure changes in lipid concentration. Internal standards and fragmentation techniques allowed for the reliable quantitation of lipid species including: lysyl-phosphatidylglycerol, phosphatidylglycerol, and cardiolipin.

Results

The untargeted analysis was capable to detecting 6 different phospholipid classes as well as free fatty acids. The targeted analysis quantified up to 23 cardiolipins, 10 phosphatidylglycerols and 10 lysyl-phosphatidylglycerols with detection limits as low as 50 nM. Biological validation with Enterococcus faecalis demonstrates sensitivity in monitoring the incorporation of exogenously supplied free fats into membrane phospholipids. When supplemented with oleic acid, the amount of free oleic acid in the membrane was 100 times greater and the concentration of polyunsaturated cardiolipin increased to over 3.5 µM compared to controls.

Conclusions

This lipidomics method is capable of targeted quantitation for challenging biologically relevant cardiolipins as well as broad, untargeted lipid profiling.

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Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge the National Institute of Health (NIH) Grant #R01 AI116571-03 for financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Eric D. Tague, Brittni M. Woodall, Abigail T. Farmer & Shawn R. Campagna

  2. Department of Microbiology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    John R. Harp & Elizabeth M. Fozo

  3. Biological and Small Mass Spectrometry Core, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Shawn R. Campagna

  4. Department of Biochemistry & Cellular and Molecular Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, 37996, USA

    Brittni M. Woodall

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  1. Eric D. Tague
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  5. Elizabeth M. Fozo
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Contributions

EDT, SRC, and EMF designed the project. EDT and BMW designed and conducted targeted analysis. EDT and ATF designed and conducted the untargeted analysis. JRH grew and extracted lipids from the bacteria. EDT, BMW, JRH, SRC, and EMF wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript. Mass spectrometric analyses were performed at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Biological and Small Molecule Mass Spectrometry Core with the assistance of Dr. Hector F. Castro.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shawn R. Campagna.

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Tague, E.D., Woodall, B.M., Harp, J.R. et al. Expanding lipidomics coverage: effective ultra performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometer methods for detection and quantitation of cardiolipin, phosphatidylglycerol, and lysyl-phosphatidylglycerol. Metabolomics 15, 53 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11306-019-1512-7

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