Publications that report mass spectrometry analyses of lipids often include lipid species that probably do not exist in the samples. Here we provide recommendations for scientists on submitting lipid data, and for reviewers, editors and readers on evaluating these data, to reduce the reporting of erroneous lipid species.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
£14.99 / 30 days
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
£139.00 per year
only £11.58 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Change history
10 July 2024
In the version of the article initially published, refs. 10 and 11 were switched and have now been amended in the HTML and PDF version of the article.
References
Kofeler, H. C. et al. Recommendations for good practice in MS-based lipidomics. J. Lipid Res. 62, 100138 (2021).
Skotland, T. & Sandvig, K. Need for more focus on lipid species in studies of biological and model membranes. Prog Lipid Res. 86, 101160 (2022).
Wood, P. L. & Cebak, J. E. Lipidomics biomarker studies: Errors, limitations, and the future. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 504, 569–575 (2018).
Menzel, J. P. et al. Ozone-enabled fatty acid discovery reveals unexpected diversity in the human lipidome. Nat. Commun. 14, 3940 (2023).
Sandhoff, R. Very long chain sphingolipids: tissue expression, function and synthesis. FEBS Lett. 584, 1907–1913 (2010).
Skotland, T. & Sandvig, K. The role of PS 18:0/18:1 in membrane function. Nat. Commun. 10, 2752 (2019).
McDonald, J. G. et al. Introducing the lipidomics minimal reporting checklist. Nat. Metab. 4, 1086–1088 (2022).
Kofeler, H. C. et al. Quality control requirements for the correct annotation of lipidomics data. Nat. Commun. 12, 4771 (2021).
Burla, B. et al. MS-based lipidomics of human blood plasma: a community-initiated position paper to develop accepted guidelines. J. Lipid Res. 59, 2001–2017 (2018).
von Gerichten, J. et al. Single-cell untargeted lipidomics using liquid chromatography and data-dependent acquisition after live cell selection. Anal. Chem. 96, 6922–6929 (2024).
Vandenbosch, M. et al. Toward omics-scale quantitative mass spectrometry imaging of lipids in brain tissue using a multiclass internal standard mixture. Anal. Chem. 95, 18719–18730 (2023).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
K.E. is the owner of Lipidomics Consulting Ltd. The other authors declare no competing interests.
Peer review
Peer review information
Nature Reviews Molecular Cell Biology thanks the anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
Additional information
Related links
Lipidomics Standards Initiative: https://lipidomicstandards.org/
Supplementary information
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Skotland, T., Ekroos, K., McDonald, J. et al. Pitfalls in lipid mass spectrometry of mammalian samples — a brief guide for biologists. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol 25, 759–760 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-024-00758-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41580-024-00758-4