Equivalent Carbon Number and Interclass Retention Time Conversion Enhance Lipid Identification in Untargeted Clinical Lipidomics.

Chromatography is often used as a method for reducing sample complexity prior to analysis by mass spectrometry, and the use of retention time (RT) is becoming increasingly popular to add valuable supporting information in lipid identification. The RT of lipids with the same headgroup in reversed-phase separation can be predicted using the equivalent carbon number (ECN) model. This model describes the effects of acyl chain length and degree of saturation on lipid RT.

The role of oxidised self-lipids and alveolar macrophage CD1b expression in COPD.

In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) apoptotic bronchial epithelial cells are increased, and their phagocytosis by alveolar macrophages (AM) is decreased alongside bacterial phagocytosis. Epithelial cellular lipids, including those exposed on uncleared apoptotic bodies, can become oxidized, and may be recognized and presented as non-self by antigen presenting cells. CD1b is a lipid-presenting protein, previously only described in dendritic cells.

Removal of optimal cutting temperature (O.C.T.) compound from embedded tissue for MALDI imaging of lipids.

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI-MSI) is a common molecular imaging modality used to characterise the abundance and spatial distribution of lipids in situ. There are several technical challenges predominantly involving sample pre-treatment and preparation which have complicated the analysis of clinical tissues by MALDI-MSI. Firstly, the common embedding of samples in optimal cutting temperature (O.