A lipidomic approach to the study of human CD4+ T lymphocytes in multiple sclerosis

Background: Lipids play different important roles in central nervous system so that dysregulation of lipid pathways has been implicated in a growing number of neurodegenerative disorders including multiple sclerosis (MS). MS is the most prevalent autoimmune disorder of the central nervous system, with neurological symptoms caused by inflammation and demyelination. In this study, a lipidomic analysis was performed for the rapid profile of CD4(+) T lymphocytes from MS patient and control samples in an untargeted approach. Methods: A matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry based approach was used for the analysis of lipid extracts using 9-aminoacridine as matrix. Lipids were analyzed in negative mode and selected species fragmented using MALDI tandem mass spectrometry for their structural assignments. Results: The analysis reveals some modifications in the phospholipid pattern of MS CD4(+) T lymphocytes with respect to healthy controls with a significant increase of cardiolipin species in MS samples. Conclusions: These results demonstrate the feasibility of a MALDI-TOF approach for the analysis of CD4(+) lipid extracts and suggest how alterations in the lipid metabolism characterized lymphocytes of MS patients.