Analysis of mitochondrial cell viability and lipid alterations in SHSY5Y neuronal cells and Long Evans rat brain after brief exposure to elevated levels of SCFAs.

The effects of SCFAs on SH-SY5Y human neuronal cell energy metabolism, viability, survival, and brain lipidome were analyzed in this study, as well as comparison against rat brain lipidome alterations. Cell and rat brain lipidomics was done using high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) UHPLC-HESI-HRAMS/MS. Lipids targeted in this study include mitochondrial lipids cardiolipin and (acyl)carnitine, as well as ceramide and plasmalogens . Neuronal cell viability, survival and energy metabolism were analyzed via cell cycle (flow cytometer), mitochondrial mass and structure (immunofluorescence cytation3/confocal/STED), and cell respiration and ATP production (SeahorseXF). Results were analyzed using XLStat and multivariate/univariate statistics such as PCA/ANOVA.