2022 Volume 6 Issue 2 Pages 126-137
Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are secreted from donor cells that bind to receptors on receiving cells to mediate signal transduction. EVs contain nucleic acids, proteins, miRNAs and small molecules, including lipid species and other metabolites. These molecules are likely functional mediators and have potential as candidate disease biomarkers and/or therapeutic targets. However, EV-selective isolation and the optimal extraction of small molecules are essential to observe the variation in EV molecules, and a more detailed classification of lipid species is required for lipidomic profiling in EVs. Here, we examined methanol precipitation to extract a wide polarity range of small molecules from isolated EVs of human plasma by kit-based metabolic and lipidomic profiling using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography triple quadrupole tandem mass spectrometry and multivariate analyses. A total of 278 and 379 molecules were identified in EVs and plasma, respectively. The contents of triglycerides consisting of polysaturated fatty acids were significantly higher in EVs than in plasma, whereas the contents of cholesterol esters were lower in EVs. This method of EV lipidomic profiling may be essential to reveal the function of EVs and utilize them for future biomarker discovery in the clinical field.
