Hyaluronidase alters the lipid profile of cumulus cells as detected by MALDI-TOF MS and multivariate analysis.

This research aimed to study the changes in lipid composition in cumulus cells using hyaluronidase according to the intracytoplasmic sperm injection protocol commonly used in human reproduction clinics. The lipid extraction was performed by the Blight-Dyer protocol and the lipid profiles were obtained by MALDI-TOF MS in positive and negative modes. The mass spectra data were processed with MassLynx and the statistical analysis was performed using MetaboAnalyst 2.0. Fifteen ions were selected for each mode as potential markers for differences between the groups. These ions were identified in the human metabolome database as phosphatidylserine with and without treatment, phosphatidylethanolamine in the after treatment group and phosphatidylinositol in the before treatment group, which are lipids that may be involved in cell apoptosis and signaling. We concluded that MALDI-TOF MS coupled with multivariate analysis can be utilized as a strategy to obtain and study the lipid profiles of cumulus cells and as a tool to study the metabolic state of cumulus cells.