title: Analysis of phospolipids and glycolipids by thin-layer chromatography-matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization mass spectrometry.
abstract: Thin-layer chromatography-matrix-assisted laser desorption and ionization mass spectrometry (TLC-MALDI-MS) of organic extracts from biological samples allows untargeted analysis and structural characterization of phospholipids and glycolipids ionized from the near-surface region of a sample separated on a TLC-plate. In particular, MALDI-MS enables the sensitive detection of many analytes directly from the solid surface of an ordinary TLC-plate even without previous staining. It will be shown that the detailed fatty acyl composition of phospholipids can be determined solely by TLC-MALDI-MS without previous derivatization, enzymatic cleavage and/or reversed phase separation. MALDI-time-of-flight (TOF) MS is thus a powerful method in this field due to its high sensitivity, low extent of induced fragmentation and simple, user-friendly performance. This review summarizes the so far available knowledge about combined TLC-MALDI-MS for phospholipid and glycolipid characterization together with the technical workflow and a survey of applications. Finally a perspective on the future of TLC-MALDI-MS is given.
authors.affiliation: University of Leipzig, Medical Department, Institute of Medical Physics & Biophysics, Härtelstr. 16/18, D-04107 Leipzig, Germany. beate.fuchs@medizin.uni-leipzig.de
authors.forename: Beate
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Fuchs
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002855:Chromatography, Thin Layer / Q000379:methods*; D006017:Glycolipids / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000032:analysis*; D019032:Spectrometry, Mass, Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption-Ionization / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D006017:Glycolipids; D010743:Phospholipids