Application of Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry in Lipidomics.

Lipids play significant roles in biological systems, and the study of lipid metabolism may provide a new insight into the diagnosis and pathophysiology of diseases. Recent developments in high-resolution mass spectrometry techniques combined with high-performance chromatographic methods provide deep insight into lipid analysis. Addition of ion mobility mass spectrometry orthogonal to LC-MS analysis workflow enhances the separation of complex lipids, improves isomer resolution, and increases confidence in lipid identification and characterization. In this chapter, we describe the principle of traveling wave ion mobility mass spectrometry (TWIMS) and its applications in untargeted LC-MS analysis for characterizing the structural diversity and complexity of lipid species in biological samples.