The ability to generate gaseous doubly charged cations of glycerophosphocholine (GPC) lipids via electrospray ionization has
made possible the evaluation of electron-transfer dissociation (ETD) for their structural characterization. Doubly sodiated
GPC cations have been reacted with azobenzene radical anions in a linear ion trap mass spectrometer. The ion/ion reactions
proceed through sodium transfer, electron-transfer, and complex formation. Electron-transfer reactions are shown to give rise
to cleavage at each ester linkage with the subsequent loss of a neutral quaternary nitrogen moiety. Electron-transfer without
dissociation produces [M+2Na]+· radical cations, which undergo collision-induced dissociation (CID) to give products that arise from bond cleavage of each
fatty acid chain. The CID of the complex ions yields products similar to those produced directly from the electron-transfer
reactions of doubly sodiated GPC, although with different relative abundances. These findings indicate that the analysis of
GPC lipids by ETD in conjunction with CID can provide some structural information, such as the number of carbons, degree of
unsaturation for each fatty acid substituent, and the positions of the fatty acid substituents; some information about the
location of the double bonds may be present in low intensity CID product ions.
Published online July 26, 2007