Cold stress syndrome (CSS) in the Florida manatee (Trichechus manatus latirostris) results in perturbations to many physiological pathways, often leading to further illness or death. In this study, we applied a non-targeted lipidomics approach with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography and high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry to characterize changes related to CSS in the lipidomic profiles of manatee plasma. Lipidomic analyses were conducted on healthy manatee (control) and cold-exposed manatee plasma samples with varying concentrations of Serum Amyloid A (SAA), an acute-phase protein that is associated with inflammatory disease. Control manatees (n = 10) were compared to all manatees exposed to cold temperatures (n = 17), and a subset of those manatees with SAA values > 120 μg/mL (n = 9). Increased SAA values were associated with higher levels of various acylcarnitine lipids, while several triacylglycerols and oxidized triacylglycerols were significantly lower in manatees with cold exposure. These identified lipids are critical molecules involved in the maintenance of energy homeostasis and could potentially be examined in conjunction with current physical parameters to characterize cold stress. The ability to detect such differences highlights the addition of lipidomics as a valuable tool in understanding cold stress and potentially other illnesses in manatees. Further investigation into the function of the altered lipids could greatly increase our understanding of lipid metabolism in physiologically stressed manatees as well as other marine mammals and inform future management recovery strategies.

佛罗里达海牛（Trichechus manatus latirostris）的冷应激综合症（CSS）导致对许多生理途径的干扰，通常导致进一步的疾病或死亡。在这项研究中，我们应用了超高效液相色谱和高分辨率串联质谱的非靶向脂质组学方法来表征海牛血浆脂质组学谱中与CSS相关的变化。对健康的海牛（对照）和冷暴露的海牛血浆样品进行了血脂分析，血浆样品中含有不同浓度的血清淀粉样蛋白A（SAA），这是一种与炎症性疾病有关的急性期蛋白。将对照海牛（n  = 10）与所有暴露于低温的海牛（n = 17），以及SAA值> 120μg/ mL（n = 9）。SAA值升高与各种酰基肉碱脂质的较高含量相关，而在冷暴露的海牛中，几种三酰基甘油和氧化的三酰基甘油含量显着降低。这些确定的脂质是维持能量稳态的关键分子，可以潜在地与当前的物理参数一起检查以表征冷应激。检测此类差异的能力突显出脂质组学作为了解冷应激和海牛中潜在其他疾病的有价值的工具。进一步研究改变的脂质的功能可以极大地增进我们对生理上受压力的海牛以及其他海洋哺乳动物中脂质代谢的了解，并为将来的管理恢复策略提供参考。