Mass spectrometry methods for the analysis of lipid molecular species: A shotgun lipidomics approach

Lipidomics or metabolomics of lipids, de ned as the large-scale study of cellular lipids, is a rapidly expanding research eld [1-3]. Although it has emerged as a distinct eld only since the past few years [1-3], numerous new discoveries and advances have already been made [3-12]. Its essential roles in identifying the biochemical mechanisms of lipid metabolism, investigating the functions of an individual gene of interest, identifying novel biomarkers, and evaluating drug ef cacy among others are becoming increasingly appreciated. One important task in lipidomics is the large-scale identi cation and quantitation of individual lipid molecular species in each cellular lipidome.