Alterations of
phospholipid (PL) profiles have been associated to disease and specific
lipids may be involved in the onset and evolution of
cancer; yet, analysis of PL profiles using mass spectrometry (MS) in
breast cancer cells is a novel approach. Previously, we reported a lipidomic analysis of PLs from mouse mammary epithelial and
breast cancer cells using off-line thin layer chromatography (TLC)-MS, where several changes in PL profile were found to be associated with the degree of
malignancy of cells. In the present study, lipidomic analysis has been extended to human mammary epithelial cells and
breast cancer cell lines (MCF10A, T47-D, and MDA-MB-231), using TLC-MS, validated by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-MS. Differences in
phosphatidylethanolamine (PE) content relative to total amount of PLs was highest in non-malignant cells while
phosphatidic acid was present with highest relative abundance in metastatic cells. In addition, the following differences in PL molecular species associated to
cancer phenotype, metastatic potential, and cell morphology were found: higher levels of alkylacyl PCs and
phosphatidylinositol (PI; 22:5/18:0) were detected in migratory cells, epithelial cells had less unsaturated fatty acyl chains and shorter aliphatic tails in PE and
sphingomyelin classes, while PI (18:0/18:1) was lowest in non-malignant cells compared to
cancer cells. To date, information about PL changes in
cancer progression is scarce, therefore results presented in this work will be useful as a starting point to define possible PLs with prospective as
biomarkers and disclose metabolic pathways with potential for
cancer therapy.