Lipids are considered as an important fraction in biological samples. In lipidomics, a non-target analytical approach is applied to monitor different lipid classes and to obtain detailed information on the qualitative and quantitative composition of this fraction in a set of samples. This approach is typically used for biological samples, such as blood, tissue or skin. In this work, the applicability of lipidomics using LC-Q-TOF-MS will be demonstrated for the characterisation of the apolar fraction of tobacco smoke.

Four tobacco smoke extracts were compared. Tobacco smoke was collected and fractionated using a standardised protocol. The lipid fractions were subjected to a lipidomics approach to differentiate the tobacco types. The comparison of all extracts was performed using a defined lipidomics platform, based on JetStream electrospray ionisation (ESI) coupled to high-resolution quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) mass spectrometry (MS). Data analysis focused on identifying lipid signatures that can be linked to differences between the sample types. A large number of features could be unravelled as being statistically significant. After data processing, the focus was put on six significant features displaying the highest signal intensity, and representing the most abundant compounds that differ between the sample groups. Lastly, these six lipids were identified as unsaturated fatty acid esters of sterol-like compounds.