Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry

, Volume 408, Issue 8, pp 2069–2082 | Cite as

Lipidomic platform for structural identification of skin ceramides with α-hydroxyacyl chains

  • Zhexue Wu
  • Jong Cheol Shon
  • Doohyun Lee
  • Kab-Tae Park
  • Chang Seo Park
  • Taeho Lee
  • Hye Suk Lee
  • Kwang-Hyeon Liu
Research Paper
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:

Abstract

Skin ceramides are sphingolipids consisting of sphingoid bases, which are linked to fatty acids via an amide bond. Typical fatty acid acyl chains are composed of α-hydroxy fatty acid (A), esterified ω-hydroxy fatty acid (EO), non-hydroxy fatty acid (N), and ω-hydroxy fatty acid (O). We recently established a lipidomic platform to identify skin ceramides with non-hydroxyacyl chains using tandem mass spectrometry. We expanded our study to establish a lipidomic platform to identify skin ceramides with α-hydroxyacyl chains. Tandem mass spectrometry analysis of A-type ceramides using chip-based direct infusion nanoelectrospray-mass spectrometry showed the characteristic fragmentation pattern of both acyl and sphingoid units, which can be applied for structural identification of ceramides. Based on the tandem mass spectrometry fragmentation patterns of A-type ceramides, comprehensive fragmentation schemes were proposed. Our results may be useful for identifying A-type ceramides in the stratum corneum of human skin.

Keywords

Ceramide Mass spectrometry Skin lipid Stratum corneum 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the Bio & Medical Technology Development Program of the National Research Foundation (NRF) funded by the Ministry of Science, ICT & Future Planning (grant no. NRF-2015M3A9E1028326 and NRF-2014R1A2A2A01002582), and the Korea Healthcare Technology R&D Project, Ministry of Health and Welfare (grant no. HN13C0076), Republic of Korea. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Compliance with ethical standards

All individuals were enrolled with informed consent.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Supplementary material

216_2015_9239_MOESM1_ESM.pdf (253 kb)
ESM 1 (PDF 151 kb)
216_2015_9239_MOESM2_ESM.xlsx (2.6 mb)
ESM 2 (XLSX 2694 kb)

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Zhexue Wu
    • 1
  • Jong Cheol Shon
    • 1
  • Doohyun Lee
    • 1
  • Kab-Tae Park
    • 1
  • Chang Seo Park
    • 2
  • Taeho Lee
    • 1
  • Hye Suk Lee
    • 3
  • Kwang-Hyeon Liu
    • 1
  1. 1.BK21 Plus KNU Multi-Omics based Creative Drug Research Team, College of Pharmacy and Research Institute of Pharmaceutical SciencesKyungpook National UniversityDaeguRepublic of Korea
  2. 2.Department of Chemical and Biochemical EngineeringDongguk UniversitySeoulRepublic of Korea
  3. 3.College of Pharmacy and Integrated Research Institute of Pharmaceutical SciencesThe Catholic University of KoreaBucheonRepublic of Korea

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