Determination of endogenous sphingolipid content in stroke rats and HT22 cells subjected to oxygen-glucose deprivation by LC‒MS/MS

BACKGROUND: Stroke is the leading cause of death in humans worldwide, and its incidence increases every year. It is well documented that lipids are closely related to stroke. Analyzing the changes in lipid content in the stroke model after absolute quantification and investigating whether changes in lipid content can predict stroke severity provides a basis for the combination of clinical stroke and quantitative lipid indicators. METHODS: This paper establishes a rapid, sensitive, and reliable LC‒MS/MS analytical method for the detection of endogenous sphingolipids in rat serum and brain tissue and HT22 cells and quantifies the changes in sphingolipid content in the serum and brain tissue of rats from the normal and pMCAO groups and in cells from the normal and OGD/R groups. Using sphingosine (d17:1) as the internal standard, a chloroform: methanol (9:1) mixed system was used for protein precipitation and lipid extraction, followed by analysis by reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled to triple quadrupole mass spectrometry. RESULTS: Based on absolute quantitative analysis of lipids in multiple biological samples, our results show that compared with those in the normal group, the contents of sphinganine (d16:0), sphinganine (d18:0), and phytosphingosine were significantly increased in the model group, except sphingosine-1-phosphate, which was decreased in various biological samples. The levels of each sphingolipid component in serum fluctuate with time. CONCLUSION: This isotope-free and derivatization-free LC‒MS/MS method can achieve absolute quantification of sphingolipids in biological samples, which may also help identify lipid biomarkers of cerebral ischemia. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT: [Image: see text] SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12944-022-01762-3.