Study of changes in the serum lipid profile of patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

• Autor(a) principal: Ferreira, Helena Beatriz Cinza Santos Leal
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10773/27813
• topic: Autoimmune diseases; Systemic lupus erythematosus; Lipidomics; Mass spectrometry; Lipidic profile; Lipid peroxidation

Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is one of the most common autoimmune diseases. Its development seems to be associated with a strong genetic predisposition, with a constitutive hyperexpression of B lymphocytes activity, and it is also associated with an increase in oxidative stress. The identification, using MS techniques, of the lipid profile typical of autoimmune diseases is a topic that is emerging yet far from being completely disclosed. SLE patients have alteration of lipoprotein profile, usually disclosed with lower levels of HDL, and higher levels of VLDL, total cholesterol and triglycerides. Very few studies reported the usage of lipidomic approaches in SLE and results gathered herein showed changes mainly in the level of phospholipids, with decrease of some plasmenyl lipids, fatty acids, with reduction of PUFA, and sphingolipids, with changes in fatty acyl chain composition. These changes can be due to the alteration of lipids by oxidation and increase of ROS. Some alterations can be associated with changes in membrane of lymphocytes and with the deregulation of the immune system. The analysis of the oxidized and non-oxidized lipid profile of SLE patients revealed that there was a considerable inter- and intragroup variability that made difficult the interpretation of the results. Nonetheless, it was verified that oxidized PE act as pro-inflammatory molecules since they showed lower relative abundance in controls; while oxidized PS were decreased in SLE, which have been associated with an anti-inflammatory effect. The results obtained corroborate the increase of oxidative stress in SLE. After careful interpretation of the results, we can conclude that inactive SLE group has a distinct oxidized lipid profile due to the administered treatment for disease management.