title: Profiling the regulatory lipids: another systemic way to unveil the biological mystery.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The regulatory lipids are a class of bioactive lipids which regulate various important biological processes. Profiling these regulatory lipids is an attractive method to understand the role of these metabolites. This is especially true because most of these regulatory lipids are derived from several important pharmacological targets: cyclooxygenase, lipoxygenase, and cytochrome P450 enzymes. This review highlights the development of methods to profile these regulatory lipids and the recent publications employing these profiling methods.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The recent development of methods for the profiling of regulatory lipids target two different directions: to expand coverage for discovery studies (fingerprinting) and to make the quantitative method more accurate, sensitive, and faster for diagnostic or more detailed studies. Recent applications of these profiling methods including assessment of in-vivo drug engagement, pathways crosstalk, and possible mechanisms for side-effects of a withdrawn anti-inflammatory drug rofecoxib are also reviewed here.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The profiling of regulatory lipids is a useful tool for many investigations. The breadth of coverage, throughput limits with detection, and reproducibility of quantitation are being improved. The resulting data will assist with fundamental investigation, disease biomarker discovery, drug discovery, and drug development.
authors.affiliation: Department of Entomology, UCD Cancer Center, University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.forename: Bruce D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Hammock
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002851:Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards; D052246:Cyclooxygenase 2 Inhibitors / Q000009:adverse effects; D004341:Drug Evaluation / Q000379:methods; D015777:Eicosanoids / Q000378:metabolism*; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3 / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007783:Lactones / Q000009:adverse effects; D053858:Metabolic Networks and Pathways; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods*; D013450:Sulfones / Q000009:adverse effects; D053719:Tandem Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods / Q000592:standards
chemical_list: D052246:Cyclooxygenase 2 Inhibitors; D015777:Eicosanoids; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3; D007783:Lactones; D013450:Sulfones; C116926:rofecoxib