Abstract

Intralipid is a fat emulsion that is regularly infused into humans and animals. Despite its routine use, Intralipid infusion can cause serious adverse reactions, including immunosuppression. Intralipid is a complex mix of proteins, lipids, and other small molecules, and the effect of its infusion on the human plasma metabolome is unknown. We hypothesized that untargeted metabolomics of human plasma after an Intralipid infusion would reveal novel insights into its effects. We infused Intralipid and saline into 10 healthy men in a double-blind, placebo-controlled experiment and used GC/MS, LC/MS, and NMR to profile the small-molecule composition of their plasma before and after infusion. Multivariate statistical analysis of the 40 resulting plasma samples revealed that after Intralipid infusion, a less-well-characterized pathway of linoleic acid metabolism had resulted in the appearance of (9Z)-12,13-dihydroxyoctadec-9-enoic acid (12,13-DHOME, P < 10(-3)), a leukotoxin that has powerful physiological effects and is known to inhibit the neutrophil respiratory burst. Intralipid infusion caused increased plasma 12,13-DHOME. Given that 12,13-DHOME is known to directly affect neutrophil function, we conclude that untargeted metabolomics may have revealed a hitherto-unknown mechanism of intralipid-induced immunosuppression.

Links

Publisher Full Text

Authors

Edwards LM, Lawler NG, Nikolic SB, Peters JM, Horne J, Wilson R, Davies NW, Sharman JE

Institution

School of Biological Sciences, University of Essex, UK. ards@essex.ac.uk

Source

Journal of lipid research 53:9 2012 Sep pg 1979-86

MeSH

Emulsions
Female
Humans
Male
Metabolomics
Oleic Acids
Phospholipids
Soybean Oil

Pub Type(s)

Journal Article
Randomized Controlled Trial

Language

eng

PubMed ID

22715155