A fast method for the determination of the PC/LPC ratio in intact serum by MALDI-TOF MS: An easy-to-follow lipid biomarker of inflammation

• MALDI-TOF MS of intact serum represents a fast and reliable analytical approach.
• Lipid extraction of body fluids is not an absolute necessity for MALDI MS.
• PC/LPC ratio is a useful parameter to monitor the severity of inflammatory diseases.

The PC/LPC ratio of blood serum is increasingly considered to represent an important clinical parameter that reflects various kinds of diseases. Here, a simple and fast method of lipid analyses of “intact” blood serum (i.e. without extraction) by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry is described. The novel procedure allows the accurate determination of the PC/LPC ratio, utilizing only a tiny amount of blood. The serum is diluted with distilled water and directly applied onto the MALDI target and, after drying, covered by a thin layer of the matrix solution (either 9-aminoacridine or 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid). Positive ion mass spectra acquired by using this procedure give similar peak patterns as the spectra of the lipid extracts of horse blood serum. Blood serum from fourteen different horses was used to set up and validate the new method of lipid analysis. The PC/LPC ratios determined with the fast “intact” method were compared with those obtained with classical MALDI-TOF MS and 31P NMR analyses of the corresponding lipid extracts. As comparable data were obtained, this is a clear indication that extraction is not an absolute necessity.