The LIPID MAPS Approach to Eicosanoid Lipidomics

Abstract

The metabolic pathways involving lipids are complex and intertwined. Developing an integrated metabolomic system capable of characterizing the global changes in lipid metabolites (“lipidomics”) is a daunting task but one that is important to undertake in light of the significant returns produced by the global approaches of genomics and proteomics. Our consortium has developed a Lipid Metabolites And Pathways Strategy, termed LIPID MAPS, that applies a global integrated approach to the study of lipidomics. The specific aim of LIPID MAPS is to develop the requisite technology and conduct an integrated research program that will establish lipidomics as a fully functioning research field. We are employing a rigorously maintained set of common biological, biochemical, and analytical technologies in each of the consortium laboratories, and an extensive informatics infrastructure. After introducing LIPID MAPS [http://www.lipidmaps.org] and its new classification system [J. Lipid Res., 46, 839–861 (2005)], new LC/MS results from the LIPID MAPS Fatty Acid/Eicosanoid Core that establish techniques for the detection and quanitation of various eicosanoid molecules generated by macrophages in response to stimuli such as LPS and a defined spieces Kdo2-Lipid A will be reported. This includes the identification of both major and minor eicosanoid products and the quantification of the increases and decreases of metabolites as a function of time during cell stimulation correlations of lipid metabolite changes across lipid categories will be reported. U54 GM069338