Secretions from meibomian glands located within the eyelid (commonly known as meibum) are rich in nonpolar lipid classes incorporating very-long (22–30 carbons) and ultra-long (>30 carbons) acyl chains. The complex nature of the meibum lipidome and its preponderance of neutral, nonpolar lipid classes presents an analytical challenge, with typically poor chromatographic resolution, even between different lipid classes. To address this challenge, we have deployed differential mobility spectrometry (DMS)-MS to interrogate the human meibum lipidome and demonstrate near-baseline resolution of the two major nonpolar classes contained therein, namely wax esters and cholesteryl esters.
