MALDI imaging MS reveals candidate lipid markers of polycystic kidney disease

Autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease is a severe, monogenetically inherited kidney and liver disease and PCK rats carrying the orthologous mutant gene serve as a model of human disease. We combined selective MALDI imaging of sulfated kidney lipids and Fisher discriminant analysis of imaging data sets for identification of candidate lipid markers of progressive disease in PCK rats. Our study highlights strong increases in lower mass lipids as main classifiers of cystic disease. Structure determination by high resolution mass spectrometry identifies these altered lipids as taurine-conjugated bile acids. Beside increased levels of serum-cholesterol these sulfated lipids are selectively elevated in the PCK rat model but not in models of related hepatorenal fibrocystic diseases suggesting that they be molecular markers of the disease.

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Ruh H, Salonikios T, Fuchser J, Schwartz M, Sticht C, Hochheim C, Wirnitzer B, Gretz N, Hopf C