Lipidomic Signature of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm and Peripheral Artery Disease

Vascular diseases are powerful predictors of cardiovascular mortality, but they are typically under-recognized and undertreated. There is no effective treatment for either abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) or peripheral artery disease (PAD). Lipids are key molecules in cardiovascular diseases and good candidates for diagnosis, monitoring, and risk prediction; nonetheless, there is very limited information on the lipidomic profile of patients with AAA and PAD. We hypothesize that lipids can be used as important prognostic biomarkers of these diseases. To achieve this, we conducted a comprehensive C18 reversed-phase (RP) liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS) lipidomic analysis of plasma from AAA and PAD patients undergoing open repair surgery, comparing their profiles with those of healthy controls. We observed a marked reduction in PAD and AAA of the relative abundances of (i) phospholipids bearing polyunsaturated fatty acids, primarily from the phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), and phosphatidylinositol (PI) classes, mostly due to oxidative degradation, and (ii) plasmalogen species of PC and PE, which serve as endogenous antioxidants. On the other side, SM and Cer increased in both pathologies. Our findings suggest a dysregulation of the lipid metabolism in AAA and PAD compared with healthy controls that deserves exploration to unravel putative biomarkers or disease hallmarks.