2023/01/19 by Tomáš Čajka, Jiří Hričko, Lucie Kulhavá +3 · 1 voice · 3 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Chemistry · #Analytical Chemistry and Chromatography #Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications #Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/ijms24031987
openalex publication_date 2023/01/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) is the method of choice for the untargeted profiling of biological samples. A multiplatform LC-MS-based approach is needed to screen polar metabolites and lipids comprehensively. Different mobile phase modifiers were tested to improve the electrospray ionization process during metabolomic and lipidomic profiling. For polar metabolites, hydrophilic interaction LC using a mobile phase with 10 mM ammonium formate/0.125% formic acid provided the best performance for amino acids, biogenic amines, sugars, nucleotides, acylcarnitines, and sugar phosphate, while reversed-phase LC (RPLC) with 0.1% formic acid outperformed for organic acids. For lipids, RPLC using a mobile phase with 10 mM ammonium formate or 10 mM ammonium formate with 0.1% formic acid permitted the high signal intensity of various lipid classes ionized in ESI(+) and robust retention times. For ESI(-), the mobile phase with 10 mM ammonium acetate with 0.1% acetic acid represented a reasonable compromise regarding the signal intensity of the detected lipids and the stability of retention times compared to 10 mM ammonium acetate alone or 0.02% acetic acid. Collectively, we show that untargeted methods should be evaluated not only on the total number of features but also based on common metabolites detected by a specific platform along with the long-term stability of retention times.