Abstract

An alternative approach to identifying fatty acid chain position in the molecular species of glycerophospholipids has been studied and developed. The fatty acyl groups esterified to the glycerol backbone in isomeric glycerophosphatidyl-choline, -serine and -ethanolamine as well as glycerophosphatidic acid can be detected by the presence of a pair of anions derived from phosphatidic acid parent ions (M minus the polar head groups in glycerophospholipids), designed to be [M--polar head--R2COOH]- and [M--polar head--R2CO--H]-, produced by negative ion fast atom bombardment combined with mass-analysed ion kinetic energy analysis. Because of the significant abundance of [M--polar head--R2COOH]- anion, fatty acid chains differing by 2 Da can be distinguished by accurate measurements of the electrostatic voltage related to this ion. Three-volt differences can be evidenced. Using this approach, the molecular species of glycerophosphatidyl-choline, -serine, -ethanolamine and -inositol from rabbit kidney were characterized after the separation of both class and species by normal and reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography, respectively. We identified 11 arachidonoyl-containing molecular species of glycerophospholipids and the other 17 lipid molecules in this biological material. A couple of 1- alkenyl-2-arachidonoyl-sn-glycerol-3-phosphoethanolamine species, identified as plasmalogen GPE 16:0-20:4 and plasmalogen GPE 18:0-20:4, were found for the first time in rabbit kidney.