6533b82dfe1ef96bd1291102

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Circulating markers of retinal and optic nerve lipids

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Purpose Blood lipids are frequently used as a surrogate of lipid composition of peripheral tissues. Even if it is well accepted, such a relationship has never been clearly demonstrated for the eye. The aim of this study was to determine in human samples whether a lipidomic approach based on red blood cells could reveal associations between circulating and ocular lipid profiles. Methods Red blood cells, retinas and optic nerves were collected from 9 human donors. The lipidomic analyses on these tissues were done by both, gas chromatography and liquid chromatography coupled to an electrospray ionization source-mass spectrometer (LC-ESI-MS/MS). Results Gas chromatographic approach did not show any relevant association between circulating and ocular lipids except for arachidonic acid whose circulating amounts were positively associated with its retinal and optic nerve levels. However, significant associations emerged from LC-ESI-MS/MS analyses. Indeed, phospholipid species in red blood cells were positively or negatively associated with representative pools of retinal DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), retinal VLC-PUFA (very-long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids) or optic nerve plasmalogens. Conclusions First, our results show that LC-ESI-MS/MS methodology is more appropriate than gas chromatography for lipidomics on red blood cells, and further extrapolation to ocular lipids. Second, this study has identified several individual lipid species that can be good candidates to represent circulating biomarkers of ocular lipids.