Lipids

Lipids in human milk provide over 50% of an infant's energy intake but also provide essential fatty acids and an abundance of bioactive compounds with many potential health benefits.

Leveraging LIPID MAPS®

HMI collaborates with the LIPID MAPS® Lipidomics Core at UC San Diego to provide broad lipidomics analyses of all the major lipid categories found in human milk, including fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, and cholestrol lipids. We perform fully quantitative or semi-quantitative analyses using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) or liquid chromatography (LC)-MS/MS platforms. Our analytical approach preserves the lipid structure, identifies the lipid backbone and yields information on the fatty acid composition of complex lipids.

Offering a Variety of Lipid Panels

Choose from different lipid panels that best meet your project needs, whether it's measuring total fat, free or total fatty acids, or individual lipid categories like phospholipids, glycerolipids, or cholesterol lipids.

Going deep? Select the complex lipid panel that includes many different lipid classes and reports over 1,300 lipid species for deep lipidomics phenotyping.

Total Fat (Creamatocrit)

Creamatocrit: uses a rapid centrifuge-based technique to measure the lipid (fat) content of human milk. To increase accuracy - particularly in human milk samples with low fat content - all samples are measured in triplicate.

Fatty Acyls (Fatty Acids, Eicosanoids/Oxylipins, Acylcarnitines)

Fatty Acids: analyzed by GC-MS and fully quantitated by comparison with authentic standards. Currently, the fatty acid panel consists of 33 fatty acids, ranging in chain length from 12 to 26 carbons, and includes all saturated fatty acids, mono- and poly-unsaturated fatty acids and their positional isomers.

Free (non-esterified) Fatty Acid Panel
Total (sum total of esterified and non-esterified) Fatty Acid Panel

Eicosanoids: Eicosanoids and N-acylethanolamines are analyzed by UPLC-MS/MS and are fully quantitated by comparison with authentic standards. The Comprehensive Eicosanoid Panel is a global eicosanoid profile, presently consisting of over 150 eicosanoids. The 10-Eicosanoid Panel is a client-defined set of 10 eicosanoids (contact us for a list of eicosanoids to choose from).

Comprehensive Eicosanoid Panel
10-Eicosanoid Panel

Acylcarnitines: play important roles in fatty acid metabolism and function as vehicles to transport acyl groups from the cytosol into the mitochondria for β-oxidation. Acylcarnitines are analyzed by untargeted UPLC-MS/MS approaches and are identified and quantified using authentic standards.

Acylcarnitine Panel

Phospholipids

For phospholipids, we offer several approaches depending on the depth of analysis that is required.

Phospholipid Panel: analyzes all individual species contained within each phospholipid class and employs sophisticated acquisition protocols that will provide the exact fatty acid composition of each lipid molecular species. For routine analysis, we provide absolute amounts of each lipid molecular species based on internal standards added at exactly known amounts.
- Required sample volume: 10 μL

Phospholipid Class Panel: consists of a quantitative phospholipid class scan that includes phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidic acid, phosphatidylglycerol and all lyso derivatives of these. We can quantify all of these classes or limit to only the ones that you select.
- Required sample volume: 10 μL

Glycerolipids

Glycerolipid Panel: provides data on all individual triacylglyceride and diacylglyceride molecular species that differ in their fatty acid composition. For routine analysis, we provide absolute amounts of each lipid molecular species based on internal standards added at exactly known amounts.

Sphingolipids

Sphingolipid Panel: consists of both the Sphingomyelin Panel and the Ceramide Panel and provides quantitative data on all lipid molecular species based on internal standards added at exactly known concentrations.

Sphingomyelin Panel: provides quantitative data on all lipid molecular species based on internal standards added at exactly known concentrations.

Ceramide Panel: provides quantitative data on all lipid molecular species based on internal standards added at exactly known concentrations.

Sphingoid Bases Panel: includes sphingosine, sphinganine, sphingosine-1-phosphate, sphinganine-1-phosphate, 1-deoxysphinganine, 1-deoxysphingosine and 3-ketosphinganine. These measurements are performed fully quantitatively.

Cholesterol Esters

Cholesterol Ester Panel: for the analysis of cholesterol esters, we use a MS protocol that yields profiling data on all individual cholesterol ester molecular species based on the associated fatty acids and we provide fully quantitative data.

Complex Lipid Panel

Complex Lipid Panel: includes the Phospholipid Panel, the Glycerolipid Panel, the Sphingolipid Panel, the Cholesterol Ester Panel and the Acylcarnitine Panel for deep lipidomics phenotyping of your samples. Reports over 1,300 lipid species, out of which over 1,100 can be identified.