Lipidomic Signature of Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm and Peripheral Artery Disease

Vascular diseases are powerful predictors of cardiovascular
mortality,
but they are typically under-recognized and undertreated. There is
no effective treatment for either abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA)
or peripheral artery disease (PAD). Lipids are key molecules in cardiovascular
diseases and good candidates for diagnosis, monitoring, and risk prediction;
nonetheless, there is very limited information on the lipidomic profile
of patients with AAA and PAD. We hypothesize that lipids can be used
as important prognostic biomarkers of these diseases. To achieve this,
we conducted a comprehensive C18 reversed-phase (RP) liquid chromatography-tandem
mass spectrometry (LC-MS) lipidomic analysis of plasma from AAA and
PAD patients undergoing open repair surgery, comparing their profiles
with those of healthy controls. We observed a marked reduction in
PAD and AAA of the relative abundances of (i) phospholipids bearing
polyunsaturated fatty acids, 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 pathologies. Our findings
suggest a dysregulation of the lipid metabolism in AAA and PAD compared
with healthy controls that deserves exploration to unravel putative
biomarkers or disease hallmarks.