CHROMATOGRAPHY, Vol. 32 (2011), No. 2, pp. 59-72
Focusing Review
Development and application of chromatographic methods for glycerolipid analysis
Yutaka Itabashi
Faculty of Fisheries Sciences, Hokkaido University
3-3-1 Minato-cho, Hakodate 041-8611, Japan
Abstract:
In the past 30 years, chiral-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) has progressed from an application practiced by just a few
chromatographers to a popular method widely used in many areas of pharmaceutical and biological sciences, including lipid chemistry. Since
we demonstrated HPLC resolution of mono- and diacylglycerol enantiomers on chiral stationary phases in the 1980s, the methodology has
been extended to the resolution of various synthetic and naturally occurring chiral glycerolipids. Using reversed-phase HPLC, we also demonstrated
the successful resolution of 1,2-diacylglycerol regioisomers (reverse isomers), which had remained a major unsolved problem in glycerolipid
chromatography. These developments of the methodology permit further expansion of lipidomics and better understanding of lipid
metabolism.
Keywords:
glycerolipid, enantiomer, diastereomer, reverse isomer, derivatization, high-performance liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry