Mass Spectrometry Center & LAQV-REQUIMTE, Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal.
CESAM-Centre for Environmental and Marine Studies, Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, Campus Universitário de Santiago, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal.
Anal Bioanal Chem. 2022 Oct;414(24):7085-7101. doi: 10.1007/s00216-022-04221-1. Epub 2022 Jul 15.
Dried blood spots (DBS) are being considered as an alternative sampling method of blood collection that can be used in combination with lipidomic and other omic analysis. DBS are successfully used in the clinical context to collect samples for newborn screening for the measurement of specific fatty acid derivatives, such as acylcarnitines, and lipids from whole blood for diagnostic purposes. However, DBS are scarcely used for lipidomic analysis and investigations. Lipidomic studies using DBS are starting to emerge as a powerful method for sampling and storage in clinical lipidomic analysis, but the major research work is being done in the pre- and analytical steps and procedures, and few in clinical applications. This review presents a description of the impact factors and variables that can affect DBS lipidomic analysis, such as the type of DBS card, haematocrit, homogeneity of the blood drop, matrix/chromatographic effects, and the chemical and physical properties of the analyte. Additionally, a brief overview of lipidomic studies using DBS to unveil their application in clinical scenarios is also presented, considering the studies of method development and validation and, to a less extent, for clinical diagnosis using clinical lipidomics. DBS combined with lipidomic approaches proved to be as effective as whole blood samples, achieving high levels of sensitivity and specificity during MS and MS/MS analysis, which could be a useful tool for biomarker identification. Lipidomic profiling using MS/MS platforms enables significant insights into physiological changes, which could be useful in precision medicine.
干血斑（DBS）被认为是一种替代采血方法，可以与脂质组学和其他组学分析结合使用。DBS 已成功用于临床环境中，以采集样本进行新生儿筛查，用于测量特定脂肪酸衍生物，如酰基辅酶 A 和全血中的脂质，以进行诊断。然而，DBS 在脂质组学分析和研究中很少被使用。使用 DBS 的脂质组学研究开始成为临床脂质组学分析中采样和储存的有力方法，但主要的研究工作集中在预处理和分析步骤和程序中，而在临床应用中则较少。本文综述了可能影响 DBS 脂质组学分析的影响因素和变量，如 DBS 卡类型、红细胞压积、血斑均匀性、基质/色谱效应以及分析物的化学和物理性质。此外，还简要介绍了使用 DBS 进行脂质组学研究的情况，考虑了方法开发和验证的研究，以及在临床脂质组学中用于临床诊断的研究。DBS 与脂质组学方法相结合被证明与全血样本一样有效，在 MS 和 MS/MS 分析中实现了高灵敏度和特异性，这可能是生物标志物识别的有用工具。使用 MS/MS 平台进行脂质组学分析可以深入了解生理变化，这在精准医学中可能很有用。
