Liquid chromatographic analysis of milk phospholipids with on-line pre-concentration

A Reliable HPLC-ELSD Method for Determination of Cholesterol, Phosphatidylcholine, Lysophosphatidylcholine Content and the Stability of a Liposomal Formulation

Background:

Liposomes continue to play an important role in drug delivery research due to their ability to improve transport and targeting of a wide range of active molecules. Analysis of liposomal components is a key point in the characterization and evaluation of formulation stability. The aim of this work was to develop and validate an HPLC-ELSD method for the characterization and quality control of liposomes.

Methods:

HPLC-ELSD method was validated by assessing selectivity, linearity, precision, accuracy, limit of detection and quantitation. The mobile phase consisted of a 0.1% (v/v) of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and methanol in gradient elution. Initial rate was 20:80 (0.1% TFA: methanol), with a ramp reaching 100% methanol. HPLC-MS/MS was used to confirm the presence of the fatty acid mixture in the analyzed lipids, as well as sub-products generated under pre-determined conditions in the stability study.

Results:

A HPLC-ELSD method has been developed to detect and measure cholesterol, phosphatidylcholine and lysophosphatidylcholine. High specificity, sensitivity and linearity within the predetermined range for all the compounds analyzed (R2>0.99) were obtained. Accuracy and precision results for all the compounds were within the acceptance limit of ≤5% and 90-110%, respectively. Mass spectrometry results showed complementary information about the phospholipid composition to evaluate the degree of degradation of liposomes over different storage conditions.

Conclusion:

The method was successfully applied as a quality control tool for the analysis of a wide range of lipids, present in liposomal formulations. HPLC-MS/MS was used to ensure complete elucidation of the lipid components and the detected lyso-forms.

Milk Polar Lipids: Underappreciated Lipids with Emerging Health Benefits

Milk fat is encased in a polar lipid-containing tri-layer milk fat globule membrane (MFGM), composed of phospholipids (PLs) and sphingolipids (SLs). Milk PLs and SLs comprise about 1% of total milk lipids. The surfactant properties of PLs are important for dairy products; however, dairy products vary considerably in their polar lipid to total lipid content due to the existence of dairy foods with different fat content. Recent basic science and clinical research examining food sources and health effects of milk polar lipids suggest they may beneficially influence dysfunctional lipid metabolism, gut dysbiosis, inflammation, cardiovascular disease, gut health, and neurodevelopment. However, more research is warranted in clinical studies to confirm these effects in humans. Overall, there are a number of potential effects of consuming milk polar lipids, and they should be considered as food matrix factors that may directly confer health benefits and/or impact effects of other dietary lipids, with implications for full-fat vs. reduced-fat dairy.

Milk fat components with potential anticancer activity-a review

During many years, the milk fat has been unfairly undervalued due to its association with higher levels of cardiovascular diseases, dyslipidaemia or obesity, among others. However, currently, this relationship is being re-evaluated because some of the dairy lipid components have been attributed potential health benefits. Due to this, and based on the increasing incidence of cancer in our society, this review work aims to discuss the state of the art concerning scientific evidence of milk lipid components and reported anticancer properties. Results from the in vitro and in vivo experiments suggest that specific fatty acids (FA) (as butyric acid and conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), among others), phospholipids and sphingolipids from milk globule membrane are potential anticarcinogenic agents. However, their mechanism of action remains still unclear due to limited and inconsistent findings in human studies.

Rapid Quantification and Validation of Lipid Concentrations within Liposomes

Quantification of the lipid content in liposomal adjuvants for subunit vaccine formulation is of extreme importance, since this concentration impacts both efficacy and stability. In this paper, we outline a high performance liquid chromatography-evaporative light scattering detector (HPLC-ELSD) method that allows for the rapid and simultaneous quantification of lipid concentrations within liposomal systems prepared by three liposomal manufacturing techniques (lipid film hydration, high shear mixing, and microfluidics). The ELSD system was used to quantify four lipids: 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DMPC), cholesterol, dimethyldioctadecylammonium (DDA) bromide, and d-(+)-trehalose 6,6′-dibehenate (TDB). The developed method offers rapidity, high sensitivity, direct linearity, and a good consistency on the responses (R² > 0.993 for the four lipids tested). The corresponding limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ) were 0.11 and 0.36 mg/mL (DMPC), 0.02 and 0.80 mg/mL (cholesterol), 0.06 and 0.20 mg/mL (DDA), and 0.05 and 0.16 mg/mL (TDB), respectively. HPLC-ELSD was shown to be a rapid and effective method for the quantification of lipids within liposome formulations without the need for lipid extraction processes.

Isolation and Analysis of Phospholipids in Dairy Foods

The lipid fraction of milk is one of the most complex matrixes in foodstuffs due to the presence of a high number of moieties with different physical and chemical properties. Glycerolipids include glycerol and two fatty acids esterified in positions sn-1 and sn-2 with higher concentration of unsaturated fatty acids than in the triglyceride fraction of milk. Sphingolipids consist of a sphingoid base linked to a fatty acid across an amide bond. Their amphiphilic nature makes them suitable to be added into a variety of foods and recent investigations show that phospholipids, mainly phosphatidylserine and sphingomyelin, can exert antimicrobial, antiviral, and anticancer activities as well as positive effects in Alzheimer's disease, stress, and memory decline. Polar lipids can be found as natural constituents in the membranes of all living organisms with soybean and eggs as the principal industrial sources, yet they have low contents in phosphatidylserine and sphingomyelin. Animal products are rich sources of these compounds but since there are legal restrictions to avoid transmission of prions, milk and dairy products are gaining interest as alternative sources. This review summarizes the analysis of polar lipids in dairy products including sample preparation (extraction and fractionation/isolation) and analysis by GC or HPLC and the latest research works using ELSD, CAD, and MS detectors.

Relevance of dietary glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids to human health

Glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids participate in a variety of indispensable metabolic, neurological, and intracellular signaling processes. In this didactic paper we review the biological roles of phospholipids and try to unravel the precise nature of their putative healthful activities. We conclude that the biological actions of phospholipids activities potentially be nutraceutically exploited in the adjunct therapy of widely diffused pathologies such as neurodegeneration or the metabolic syndrome. As phospholipids can be recovered from inexpensive sources such as food processing by-products, ad-hoc investigation is warranted.

Natural variation of bovine milk fat globule size within a herd

Native milk fat globule (MFG) size, pH, total fat, protein, and lactose composition in milk from individual cows was examined in autumn and spring 2012 and autumn 2013. Mean MFG diameters ranged between 2.5 and 5.7 µm. Some cows were observed to consistently produce small or large MFG throughout the sampling period, though trends were not consistent across all cows. Small-MFG milk contained more total polar lipids; however, the relative proportion of individual polar lipids did not differ with MFG size, with the exception of phosphatidylcholine, which was greater in small-MFG milk. No significant correlation between MFG size and proximate composition, including calculated fat yield or pH, was found. This work revealed a natural cow-to-cow variation in MFG size exists, which could potentially be exploited to improve the functionality of milk for manufacturing and some products.

Analysis of phospholipids in infant formulas using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry

Phospholipids have been used widely in the food industry as emulsifiers, but it is their biological and nutritional function that has been the focus over recent years. The recognition of the importance of phospholipids and sphingomyelin for infant development has led to an increase in the number of infant formulas claiming to contain these complex lipid components. Therefore, the ability to measure these lipids in infant formulas and dairy-derived complex lipid ingredients for fortification purposes is important. A high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry method that quantifies phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylserine, and sphingomyelin found in infant formulas and dairy-derived complex lipid ingredients is described. The method uses external standards of similar fatty acid profile for calibration. The recovery of phospholipids ranged from 92% to 102% with a method repeatability coefficient of variation of 6-10%. In addition to the specificity and selectivity of the method, details of the molecular species in the individual phospholipid classes are available using this method.

Phospholipids in milk fat: composition, biological and technological significance, and analytical strategies

Glycerophospholipids and sphingolipids are quantitatively the most important phospholipids (PLs) in milk. They are located on the milk fat globule membrane (MFGM) and in other membranous material of the skim milk phase. They include principally phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol and phosphatidylserine, while sphingomyelin is the dominant species of sphingolipids There is considerable evidence that PLs have beneficial health effects, such as regulation of the inflammatory reactions, chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic activity on some types of cancer, and inhibition of the cholesterol absorption. PLs show good emulsifying properties and can be used as a delivery system for liposoluble constituents. Due to the amphiphilic characteristics of these molecules, their extraction, separation and detection are critical points in the analytical approach. The extraction by using chloroform and methanol, followed by the determination by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC), coupled with evaporative light scattering (ELSD) or mass detector (MS), are the most applied procedures for the PL evaluation. More recently, nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry (NMR) was also used, but despite it demonstrating high sensitivity, it requires more studies to obtain accurate results. This review is focused on milk fat phospholipids; their composition, biological activity, technological properties, and significance in the structure of milk fat. Different analytical methodologies are also discussed.

Seasonal and stage of lactation effects on milk fat composition in northern Victoria

Effect of herd nutrition, time of year and season of calving on milk fat composition and physical properties were examined on irrigated commercial dairy farms in northern Victoria that made use of split-calving and a diverse range of feeding systems. Twenty-four farms were included in the study, and from each farm, morning and evening milk samples were collected from 16 cows that calved in autumn and 16 cows that calved in spring. There were no significant effects of season of calving on the concentration of fatty acids or phospholipids in milk fat, but there were interactions between season of calving and time of year (P < 0.001). These differences could be attributed to changes in energy balance and body condition with stage of lactation. The phospholipids comprising mainly phosphotidylcholine (PC), phosphtidylethanolamine (PE) and sphingomyelin (SP) also varied, with PC and PE being highest in late lactation and SP lowest during peak and mid lactation for both calving groups. Milk fat colour and the concentrations of free fatty acids were more influenced by factors associated with time of year rather than stage of lactation. Milk fat colour in particular showed strong seasonal variation being distinctly lighter in summer–early autumn when compared with rest of the year. Increasing the amount of concentrates fed was associated with decreases in short-chain fatty acid concentration and increases in the solid fat content of milk fat. Variations in nutritional management practices had only small (non-significant) effects on fat composition.

Composition and fatty acid distribution of bovine milk phospholipids from processed milk products

The aim of this work was to assess the accuracy of different extraction methods of phospholipids and to measure the effect that processing has on phospholipid composition. Four methods of extracting phospholipids from buttermilk powder were compared to optimize recovery of sphingomyelin. Using the optimal method, the phospholipid profile of four dairy products (raw milk, raw cream, homogenized and pasteurized milk, and buttermilk powder) was determined. A total lipid extraction by the Folch method followed by a solid-phase extraction using the Bitman method was the most efficient technique to recover milk sphingomyelin. Milk processing (churning, centrifuging, homogenization, spray-drying) affected the profile of milk phospholipids, leading to a loss of sphingomyelin and phosphatidylcholine after centrifugation for cream separation. A corresponding decrease in the saturation content of the raw cream phospholipids and a loss of phosphatidylethanolamine after spray-drying to produce buttermilk powder were also observed.

Signal enhancement in HPLC/microcoil NMR using automated column trapping

A new HPLC NMR system is described that performs analytical separation, preconcentration, and NMR spectroscopy in rapid succession. The central component of our method is the online preconcentration sequence that improves the match between postcolumn analyte peak volume and microcoil NMR detection volume. Separated samples are collected on to a C18 guard column with a mobile phase composed of 90% D2O/10% acetonitrile-D3 and back-flushed to the NMR microcoil probe with 90% acetonitrile-D3/10% D2O. To assess the performance of our unit, we separated a standard mixture of 1 mM ibuprofen, naproxen, and phenylbutazone using a commercially available C18 analytical column. The S/N measurements from the NMR acquisitions indicated that we achieved signal enhancement factors up to 10.4 (+/-1.2)-fold. Furthermore, we observed that preconcentration factors increased as the injected amount of analyte decreased. The highest concentration enrichment of 14.7 (+/-2.2)-fold was attained injecting 100 microL of solution of 0.2 mM (approximately 4 microg) ibuprofen.

Determination of phospholipids in dairy products by SPE/HPLC/ELSD

The aim of this work was to evaluate the performance of different methods for both milk lipid extraction and phospholipids separation. As far as the lipid extraction procedure is concerned, the Folch method showed a higher phospholipid recovery with respect to the Rose-Gottlieb method. Different SPE cartridges and solvent phases were tested to carry out the separation of phospholipids from fat. The yield of extraction was evaluated by isolating phospholipids from both milk fat and synthetic fat; Standard Addition Method was applied as well. The isolation of the phospholipids by SPE silica column and subsequent analysis by HPLC/ELSD was shown to be an accurate and reproducible analytical method for the determination of phosphatidylethanolamine, phosphatidylinositol, phosphatidylserine, phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin in milk fat extracted by Folch method.