The effect of lead exposure on fatty acid composition in mouse brain analyzed using pseudo-catalytic derivatization

We performed toxicological study of mice exposed to lead by quantifying fatty acids in brain of the mice. This study suggests that the introduced analytical method had an extremely high tolerance against impurities such as water and extractives; thus, it led to the enhanced resolution in visualizing the spectrum of fatty acid profiles in animal brain. Furthermore, one of the biggest technical advantages achieved in this study was the quantitation of fatty acid methyl ester profiles of mouse brain using a trace amount of sample (e.g., 100 μL mixture). Methanol was screened as the most effective extraction solvent for mouse brain. The behavioral test of the mice before and after lead exposure was conducted to see the effect of lead exposure on fatty acid composition of the mice’ brain. The lead exposure led to changes in disease-related behavior of the mice. Also, the lead exposure induced significant alterations of fatty acid profile (C16:0, C 18:0, and C 18:1) in brain of the mice, implicated in pathology of psychiatric diseases. The alteration of fatty acid profile of brain of the mice suggests that the derivatizing technique can be applicable to most research fields associated with the environmental neurotoxins with better resolution in a short time, as compared to the current protocols for lipid analysis.