In-depth triacylglycerol profiling using MS3 Q-Trap mass spectrometry.

Abstract

Total triacylglycerol (TAG) level is a key clinical marker of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. However, the roles of individual TAGs have not been thoroughly explored in part due to their extreme structural complexity. We present a targeted mass spectrometry-based method combining multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) and multiple stage mass spectrometry (MS3) for the comprehensive qualitative and semiquantitative profiling of TAGs. This method referred as TriP-MS3 - triacylglycerol profiling using MS3 - screens for more than 6,700 TAG species in a fully automated fashion. TriP-MS3 demonstrated excellent reproducibility (median interday CV\xa0∼\xa00.15) and linearity (median R2\xa0=\xa00.978) and detected 285 individual TAG species in human plasma. The semiquantitative accuracy of the method was validated by comparison with a state-of-the-art reverse phase liquid chromatography (RPLC)-MS (R2\xa0=\xa00.83), which is the most commonly used approach for TAGs profiling. Finally, we demonstrate the utility and the versatility of the method by characterizing the effects of a fatty acid desaturase inhibitor on TAG profiles in\xa0vitro and by profiling TAGs in Caenorhabditis elegans.