Faculty Collaboration Database

Unique molecular signatures of glycerophospholipid species in different rat tissues analyzed by tandem mass spectrometry. Biochim Biophys Acta 2006 Sep;1761(9):1022-9

Date

07/25/2006

Pubmed ID

16860597

DOI

10.1016/j.bbalip.2006.05.010

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-33748447921 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   107 Citations

Abstract

Glycerophospholipids (GPL) in animal tissues are composed of a large array of molecular species that mainly differ in the fatty acyl composition. In order to further understand the roles of GPL at the molecular level, it is necessary to have comprehensive, accurate accounts of the molecular makeup for these molecules in animal tissues. However, this task was difficult simply because the conventional technologies of profiling GPL species depended heavily on technical skill for accuracy and reliability and were extremely labor-intensive. In recent years, tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) proved to be a highly reliable and sensitive technology for profiling small molecules, including GPL, in biological samples. In this study, we used this technology to perform simultaneous comparative analyses for phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylserine (PS) and phosphatidylinositol (PI) in the same lipid preparations of liver, lung, kidney, heart, pancreas, stomach, small intestine, spleen, skeleton muscle and brain of an adult rat. We produced molecular profiles of these 4 GPL classes in these 10 different tissues that are highly reproducible between different scans of the same sample and between samples from different animals. It is intriguing that each tissue was found to possess a unique signature of GPL profile that may be used to identify unknown tissues. More importantly, these profiles may also set reference points for studying changes of GPL metabolism in different physiological and pathological conditions.

Author List

Hicks AM, DeLong CJ, Thomas MJ, Samuel M, Cui Z

Author

Michael J. Thomas PhD Professor in the Pharmacology and Toxicology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Animals
Glycerophospholipids
Mass Spectrometry
Organ Specificity
Phosphatidylcholines
Phosphatidylethanolamines
Phosphatidylinositols
Phosphatidylserines
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley