Fatty acids play critical roles in biological systems. Imbalances in fatty acids are related to a variety of diseases, which makes the measurement of fatty acids in biological samples important. Many analytical strategies have been developed to investigate fatty acids in various biological samples. Due to the structural diversity of fatty acids, many factors need to be considered when developing analytical methods including extraction methods, derivatization methods, column selections, and internal standard selections. This review focused on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)-based methods. We reviewed several commonly used fatty acid extraction approaches, including liquid-liquid extraction and solid-phase microextraction. Moreover, both acid and base derivatization methods and other specially designed methods were comprehensively reviewed, and their strengths and limitations were discussed. Having good separation efficiency is essential to building an accurate and reliable GC-MS platform for fatty acid analysis. We reviewed the separation performance of different columns and discussed the application of multidimensional GC for improving separations. The selection of internal standards was also discussed. In the final section, we introduced several biomedical studies that measured fatty acid levels in different sample matrices and provided hints on the relationships between fatty acid imbalances and diseases.

中文翻译：

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用于生物样品中脂肪酸分析的基于气相色谱-质谱的分析策略

脂肪酸在生物系统中起着关键作用。脂肪酸的不平衡与多种疾病有关，这使得生物样品中脂肪酸的测量变得重要。已经开发了许多分析策略来研究各种生物样品中的脂肪酸。由于脂肪酸的结构多样性，在开发分析方法时需要考虑很多因素，包括提取方法、衍生方法、色谱柱选择和内标选择。本综述侧重于基于气相色谱-质谱 (GC-MS) 的方法。我们回顾了几种常用的脂肪酸提取方法，包括液液萃取和固相微萃取。而且，对酸和碱衍生方法和其他专门设计的方法进行了全面审查，并讨论了它们的优点和局限性。具有良好的分离效率对于构建准确可靠的 GC-MS 脂肪酸分析平台至关重要。我们回顾了不同色谱柱的分离性能，并讨论了多维气相色谱在改善分离方面的应用。还讨论了内部标准的选择。在最后一节中，我们介绍了几项测量不同样品基质中脂肪酸水平的生物医学研究，并提供了有关脂肪酸失衡与疾病之间关系的提示。具有良好的分离效率对于构建准确可靠的 GC-MS 脂肪酸分析平台至关重要。我们回顾了不同色谱柱的分离性能，并讨论了多维气相色谱在改善分离方面的应用。还讨论了内部标准的选择。在最后一节中，我们介绍了几项测量不同样品基质中脂肪酸水平的生物医学研究，并提供了有关脂肪酸失衡与疾病之间关系的提示。具有良好的分离效率对于构建准确可靠的 GC-MS 脂肪酸分析平台至关重要。我们回顾了不同色谱柱的分离性能，并讨论了多维气相色谱在改善分离方面的应用。还讨论了内部标准的选择。在最后一节中，我们介绍了几项测量不同样品基质中脂肪酸水平的生物医学研究，并提供了有关脂肪酸失衡与疾病之间关系的提示。