Current status and advances in untargeted LC-MS tissue lipidomics studies in cardiovascular health

Lipid dysregulation is associated with various disorders, including cardiovascular disease (CVD). Measuring lipid levels in cardiovascular and adipose tissues is essential for understanding the mechanisms of their regulation, defining therapeutic targets, monitoring disease severity, treatment response, and/or prognosis. This review critically examines the current status and advances in untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry workflows for tissue lipidomics, including lipid extraction, separation modes and mass spectrometric workflows, as well as their recent clinical applications to obtain novel insights into CVD and/or obesity. It also highlights current best quality control practices in the field of plasma lipidomics, including a selection of internal standards and reference materials. Key findings from recent inter-laboratory comparisons for human plasma are also summarized. Stringent quality control practices are crucial to ensure high quality, wide applicability and harmonization of lipidomics data. Their fundamentals are established in plasma lipidomics and require further development for cardiovascular and adipose tissue lipidomics.