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International Lipid Association's efforts toward standardization and harmonization. By collaborating in 26 countries on reporting, harmonizing lipid names and analysis, we increase the comparability of data between studies and laboratories, promoting greater transparency and sustainability in science.

International Lipid Association's efforts toward standardization and harmonization. By collaborating in 26 countries on reporting, harmonizing lipid names and analysis, we increase the comparability of data between studies and laboratories, promoting greater transparency and sustainability in science.

In a ring study, researchers from the University of Vienna and international partners established groundbreaking reference values ​​for ceramides, important plasma lipids that can serve as biomarkers of cardiovascular disease.

from Leonie Holwarth

3 minutes reading time(524 words)

Researchers at the University of Vienna led by the chemist have achieved a major breakthrough in the field of lipidomics Robert Ahrends As well as scientific teams in Singapore, Zurich and Espoo. Scientists have made pioneering progress in establishing reference values ​​for ceramides, plasma lipids that play a role, for example, in cardiovascular disease. The ring study was conducted under the auspices of the International Lipidology Society (ILS). The results of the first phase of interlaboratory testing of ceramide were published in the popular journal Nature Communications.

Understand the role of fats

Lipidomics—a field of life science that studies signaling pathways and cellular lipid networks in biological systems—aims to understand the role of lipids in health and disease by analyzing their structure, functions, and interactions in cells. Understanding the upper and lower concentration limits of lipids is essential for scientific progress and implementation of techniques in lipidomics. For this purpose, interlaboratory testing of ceramide was initiated as a first step towards the possibility of in vitro reproducibility in a global network of laboratories.

Seven years of research

Interlaboratory testing is a method in which several laboratories independently analyze the same samples using similar or different methods and compare their results. This helps evaluate the reliability and consistency of measurements across different laboratories and improves standardization and quality control in scientific testing. After seven years of collaborative efforts, the results of 34 participating laboratories from 19 countries have been summarized in the Ceramide Ring Trial study. To reduce complexity, testing of ceramide efficacy has been limited to human plasma/serum.

Ceramides play a big role

The aim was to study the concentrations and their variation of four different types of ceramides. Ceramides play a role in many diseases and are considered biomarkers of cardiovascular disease. Participating laboratory teams used a preferred analytical method and/or standardized protocol to quantify ceramides in NIST1950 (a standard reference material for human plasma metabolites provided by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, NIST) and three other plasma reference materials compiled by NIST using a specially formulated mixture of ceramide standards from Avanti Polar Lipids.

Setting new standards

“A number of valuable conclusions can be drawn from the results of our comprehensive testing,” he explains Robert Ahrends from the Institute of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Vienna and corresponding author of the study. His three findings: Standardization is key to reducing variations in the testing process and achieving consensus on the concentrations of analytes. Moreover, determining the mean value of ceramide concentrations forms the basis for future biological and medical studies related to ceramide-related diseases. Third, by comparing mixed plasma samples, the study can estimate biological differences between healthy people, people with high cholesterol, and different ethnic groups. “This study is the largest and most rigorous cross-laboratory, multi-platform study of specific ceramides in human plasma. It sets new standards for the future coordination of lipidomics research and beyond,” says Ahrends.