Lipidomic signature of abdominal aortic aneurysm and peripheral artery disease

Plasma lipidomic analysis through C18 RP-LC-MS/MS revealed that AAA and PAD patients show alterations in the phospholipid and sphingolipid profile. We observed a marked reduction in PAD and AAA of the relative abundances of (i) phospholipids bearing polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs), primarily from the phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), and phosphatidylinositol (PI) classes, mostly due to oxidative degradation and (ii) plasmalogen species of PC and PE, which serve as endogenous antioxidants.

On the other side, SM and Cer increased in both AAA and PAD. Our findings suggest a dysregulation of the lipid metabolism in AAA and PAD compared with healthy controls that deserves to be explored to unravel putative biomarkers or disease hallmarks.