Lipidomics has become a pivotal tool in
biomarker discovery for the diagnosis of
psychiatric illnesses. However, the composition and quantitative analysis of peripheral
lipids in female patients with
bipolar disorder (BD) have been poorly addressed. In this study, plasma samples from 24 female patients with BD and 30 healthy controls (HCs) were analyzed by comprehensive
lipid profiling and quantitative validation based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. Clinical characteristics and a correlation between the level of
lipid molecules and clinical symptoms were also observed. We found that the quantitative alterations in several
lipid classes, including
acylcarnitine,
lysophosphatidylethanolamine, GM2,
sphingomyelin, GD2,
triglyceride,
monogalactosyldiacylglycerol,
phosphatidylinositol phosphate,
phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate,
phosphatidylethanolamine,
phosphatidylserine, and
lysophosphatidylinositol, were remarkably upregulated or downregulated in patients with BD and were positively or negatively correlated with the severity of psychotic, affective, or
mania symptoms. Meanwhile, the composition of different
carbon chain lengths and degrees of
fatty acid saturation for these
lipid classes in BD were also different from those of HCs. Moreover, 55
lipid molecules with significant differences and correlations with the clinical parameters were observed. Finally, a plasma
biomarker set comprising nine
lipids was identified, and an area under the curve of 0.994 was obtained between patients with BD and the HCs. In conclusion, this study provides a further understanding of abnormal lipid metabolism in the plasma and suggests that specific
lipid species can be used as complementary
biomarkers for the diagnosis of BD in women.