Analysis of Human Blood Plasma by MALDI‐TOF MS—Evaluation of Critical Parameters

Abstract

Matrix‐assisted laser desorption and ionization time‐of‐flight (MALDI‐TOF) mass spectrometry (MS) was used to evaluate the lipid composition of human blood plasma. The focus was on parameters affecting the spectral quality: The laser intensity had the highest impact and must be set as low as possible. Additionally, salt removal by lipid extraction led to an enhanced reproducibility. Surprisingly, the influence of storage time of a given plasma sample was only weak.

It will be shown that the lipid MALDI‐TOF mass spectra allow the differentiation of nutrition habits. The comparison between vegetarians and normal volunteers indicated a higher phosphatidylcholine to triacylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine to lysophosphatidylcholine ratio in the plasma of the vegetarians.

Keywords:

• MALDI‐TOF MS
• plasma
• lipids
• phosphatidylcholine
• lysophos‐phatidylcholine

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Interdisziplinäre Zentrum für Klinische Forschung (IZKF) at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universität Leipzig (Project A 17).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Olaf Zschörnig

These authors contributed equally to this work

Volker Richter

These authors contributed equally to this work

Fausi Rassoul

These authors contributed equally to this work