UV-MALDI mass spectrometry analysis of NBD-glycosphingolipids without an external matrix.

MALENA LANDONI; VILMA G. DUSCHAK; ROSA ERRA-BALSELLS; ALICIA S. COUTO

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR MASS SPECTROMETRY

Elsevier

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2008 vol. 19 p. 923 - 926

1044-0305

Each day, advances in the instrumentation and operating protocols bring new applications and insights into the molecular processes of ultra violet-matrix assisted laser desoption/ ionization-mass spectrometry, increasing its potential use. We report here an approach in which mass spectrometry analysis of sphingolipids has been performed using a fluorescent tag (nitrobenz-2-oxa-1, 3-diazole, NBD) covalently linked to the sphingoid base as matrix. Thus, different labeled-sphingolipids were analysed: ceramide, dihydroceramide, acetylceramide, glucosylceramide, galactosylceramide, galactosyldihydroceramide. In addition an extract of glycosphingolipids obtained from epimastigote forms of Trypanosoma cruzi metabolically labeled with NBD-ceramide was analysed. The goal of this work is to show that no matrix needs to be added for the mass spectrometry analysis as the same tag used to label the lipids may generate efficiently analyte ions to obtain high quality signals.