LAUSR

Lipidomics is going to leave its role of “Cinderella” of omics technologies. Innovative mass spectrometry and bioinformatics technology is bursting into the omics scene and this is leading lipid science to gain renewed attention and interest by the scientific community. New lipidomics challenges have already launched including that of extensive (high-throughput) exploration of oxidized lipids in biological matrices (that is “redox lipidomics”). Alpha-tocopherol, the main form of vitamin E in human tissues, is a H donor with exclusive pertinence to lipid peroxide substrates of cellular membranes and lipoprotein particles. The direct or enzyme-mediated interaction of this vitamin with lipid oxidation pathways generates specific metabolites and functional responses. This area of redox lipidomics is now gaining increasing interest for its role in PUFA oxidation and lipid signaling, and more in general in long-chain lipid metabolism under both physiological and pathological conditions. Targeted and untargeted lipidomics protocols of investigation are now available to characterize the functional lipidome of vitamin E that is discussed in this paper along with other emerging aspects of redox lipidomics.