Composition Analysis of Sebum Lipids by ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy

Abstract

We developed the AL-ATR (aluminum-attenuated total reflectance) method to analyze each sebum component quantitatively with simplicity and rapidity. This method can determine major components of sebum, i.e., triglycerides, free fatty acids, squalene, wax esters, which were collected o the aluminum foil, using spectra obtained from ATR-FTIR (Fourier transform infrared) and, by the application of the PLS (partial least squares) method. We examined AL-ATR method and obtained the following results. (1) The calibration curves of ATR-FTIR method are linear with a high reproducibility. (2) The data obtained from AL-ATR method is well correlated with GC method. (3) The composition of the sample collected on AL is almost the same as that of the sample collected on the filter paper.
It takes only five minutes to complete the whole procedure, from collecting sebum samples to analyzing the sebum composition using AL-ATR method. Consequently, AL-ATR method is a simple, rapid, quantitative, and reliable method to analyze the sebum compositions.