Recent advances in lipidomics: Analytical and clinical perspectives

Lipidomics or lipid-profiling is a lipid-targeted metabolomics approach aiming at comprehensive analysis of lipids in biological systems. The extent of information in the genomic and proteomic fields is greater than that in the lipidomics field, because of the complex nature of lipids and the limitations of tools for analysis. Modern technological advances in mass spectrometry and chromatography have greatly improved the developments and applications of metabolic profiling of diverse lipids in complex biological samples. Lipidomics will not only provide insights into the specific functions of lipid species in health and disease, but will also identify potential biomarkers for establishing preventive or therapeutic programs for human diseases. In this review, emphasis is given to the current advances in lipidomics technologies and their applications in disease biomarker discovery, and its clinical application. The application of lipidomics in clinical studies may provide new insights into lipid profiling and pathophysiological mechanisms. We also discuss the lipidomics for the future perspectives and their potential problems.