Liquid chromatography is used as an orthogonal method to mass spectrometry in order to provide a second dimension of separation. Thus, LC is tackling phenomena like ion suppression, ambiguous identification of isobaric/isomeric lipid species etc.

However, LC is not strictly necessary to identify lipids, and there are ongoing efforts to address the shortcomings of shotgun lipidomics [1].

For tools regarding data analysis you could take a look at ALEX [2], LipidXplorer [3] or the more recent LipidXte [4].

[1] Hu C, Duan Q, Han X. Strategies to Improve/Eliminate the Limitations in Shotgun Lipidomics. Proteomics. 2020;20(11):e1900070.

[2] Husen P, Tarasov K, Katafiasz M, Sokol E, Vogt J, Baumgart J, Nitsch R, Ekroos K, Ejsing CS. Analysis of lipid experiments (ALEX): a software framework for analysis of high-resolution shotgun lipidomics data. PLoS One. 2013;8(11):e79736

[3] Herzog R, Schwudke D, Shevchenko A. LipidXplorer: Software for Quantitative Shotgun Lipidomics Compatible with Multiple Mass Spectrometry Platforms. Curr Protoc Bioinformatics. 2013 15;43:14.12.1-14.12.30

[4] Schuhmann K, Moon H, Thomas H, Ackerman JM, Groessl M, Wagner N, Kellmann M, Henry I, Nadler A, Shevchenko A. Quantitative Fragmentation Model for Bottom-Up Shotgun Lipidomics. Anal Chem. 2019 17;91(18):12085-12093

Hi Christoph,

Thank you so much!

Kind regards,

Balamane

Lipidomics analysis is quite complex and presents a significant challenge to accurately identify the lipids (fatty acids, phospholipids, or sterols...) using desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-

Hi Zahira,

Thank you for answering my question! Do you believe that SIMS as opposed to DESI-MSI is better to image tissues rich in lipids?

Thanks!

Balamane