Evaluation and quantitation of intact wax esters of human meibum by gas-liquid chromatography-ion trap mass spectrometry

Wax esters (WE) of human meibum are one of the largest group of meibomian lipids. Their complete characterization on the level of individual intact lipid species has not been completed yet. We obtained detailed structural information on previously uncharacterized meibomian WE. Intact WE were separat...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Investigative ophthalmology & visual science 2012-06, Vol.53 (7), p.3766-3781
Main Authors: Butovich, Igor A, Arciniega, Juan C, Lu, Hua, Molai, Mike
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Esters
Female
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry - methods
Humans
Male
Meibomian Glands - secretion
Waxes - chemistry
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Summary:Wax esters (WE) of human meibum are one of the largest group of meibomian lipids. Their complete characterization on the level of individual intact lipid species has not been completed yet. We obtained detailed structural information on previously uncharacterized meibomian WE. Intact WE were separated and analyzed by means of high-temperature capillary gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) in combination with low voltage (30 eV) electron ionization ion trap mass spectrometry (ITMS). 3D (mass-to-charge ratio [m/z] versus lipid sample weight versus signal intensity) calibration plots were used for quantitation of WE. We demonstrated that GLC-ITMS was suitable for analyzing unpooled/underivatized WE collected from 14 individual donors. More than 100 of saturated and unsaturated WE (SWE and UWE, respectively) were detected. On average, UWE represented about 82% of the total WE pool. About 90% of UWE were based on oleic acid, while less than 10% were based on palmitoleic acid. The amounts of poly-UWE were
ISSN:1552-5783
0146-0404
1552-5783
DOI:10.1167/iovs.11-9333