Lipidomic biomarkers in polycystic ovary syndrome: An overview

PCOS is a complex and heterogeneous disorder associated with psychological, reproductive and metabolic features. Despite the progress achieved in understanding PCOS pathogenesis, the disease remains a sci-entific challenge for researchers. One of the great mysteries is what the common denominator may be that links ovarian hyperandrogenism, obesity and insulin resistance. Lipidomics is a promising recent test for diagnosis of several metabolic diseases and for studying metabolic pathways. The aim of the present study was to conduct a systematic review of human studies on lipid biomarkers of PCOS identi-fied from lipidomics, potentially providing a source of detection and treatment targets for women with this disorder. To our knowledge no other systematic reviews have investigated this topic. A system-atic review was conducted via the PubMed, Embase and Scopus databases. Here we summarize studies that described lipidomic aspects of PCOS. Twenty-one studies were finally included. Relevant data were extracted following the PRISMA checklist and quality was assessed using the QUADOMICS tool. Qualita-tive data are presented in a comprehensive Table. We identified 386 candidate lipids, with expression differing between PCOS subjects and controls. They belong to different categories of lipids: 7.5% glyc-erolipids, 31.8% glycerophospholipids, 8% sphingolipids, 0.5% derivatized lipids, 37.5% fatty acyls, 4.6% fatty esters, 4.1% eicosanoids and 6% sterols. Overall, there may be specific changes in lipid profile in PCOS, and some of the reported lipids may be potential lipidomic biomarkers of PCOS, if further vali-dated. The markers seem useful for identifying PCOS subtypes at risk of metabolic disorder, which could then benefit from early prophylaxis and treatment.(c) 2022 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.