Metabolic profiling of lipids by supercritical fluid chromatography/mass spectrometry

This review describes the usefulness of supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) for the metabolic profiling of lipids. First, non-targeted lipid profiling by SFC/MS is described. The use of SFC/MS allows for high-throughput, exhaustive analysis of diverse lipids, and hence, this technique finds potential applications in lipidomics. Development of a polar lipid profiling method with trimethylsilyl (TMS)derivatization widens the scope of applicability of SFC/MS. SFC is a high-resolution technique that is suitable for non-targeted profiling aimed at the simultaneous analysis of many components. Next, targeted lipid profiling by SFC/MS is described. SFC is useful for the separation of lipids, such as carotenoids and triacylglycerols, which have numerous analogs with similar structures. In addition, SFC/MS shows the maximum efficiency for the target analysis of lipids in a biological sample that includes many matrices. Finally, a high-resolution, high-throughput analytical system based on SFC/MS is stated to be suitable for lipidomics because it is useful not only for the screening of lipid mixtures (as a fingerprint method) but also for the detailed profiling of individual components. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.