Analisi HPLC-ESI-MS/MS delle specie molecolari fosfolipidiche dei germogli di grano e di farro (Triticum dicoccum). Possibile correlazione con l’attività di controllo della proliferazione in cellule normali e tumorali

Aqueous and hydroalcoholic extracts of wheat and emmer sprouts contain a powerfull cocktail of antioxidant compounds mainly belonging to polyphenols and reducing glycosides. Experiments at cellular level show that the wheat and spelt extracts perform a dose-dependent inhibition of HeLa cancer cells proliferation. Viceversa this inibition is not detectable on the MDCK normal cells growth. Since another biochemical peculiarity of the studied sprouts is the high level of organic phosphates and literature data show some relations between nuclear and membrane lipids and cellular growth, it is interesting to study the phospholipids classes of the wheat and spelt sprouts. The characterization of the phospholipids molecular species was accomplished with normal-phase high performance liquid chromatography coupled on-line with electrospray ionization ion-trap tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-ESI-MS-MS). This procedure allowed the separation of each phospholipids molecular species and their unambiguous identification. The species of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), phosphatidylcholine (PC), phosphatidic acid (PA) and lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) were all detected as the [M+H]+. Phosphatidylinositol (PI) was detected as ammonium adduct [M+NH4]+. The results showed that the phospholipidic fractions of wheat and emmer sprouts were rich in linolenic acid C18:3 3), which represented 18.3% of total fatty acids of the polar lipid fraction in wheat sprouts and 15.1% in emmer sprouts, respectively. The compositions of PI and PA molecular species were similar in wheat and emmer sprouts. The preponderant molecular species for PI was formed by palmitic and linoleic acid [PI (C16:0/C18:2)], whereas the major molecular species of PA contained exclusively linoleic acid, PA [(C18:2/C18:2)]. Significant differences among wheat and emmer were found in the compositions of PE and PC molecular species. In wheat sprouts, the preponderant molecular species of PE was PE (C18:2/C18:2) whereas it was PE (C16:0/C18:2) in the spelt sprouts. Moreover, in wheat sprouts the preponderant molecular species of PC was PC (C16:0/C18:2), whereas in the spelt sprouts was PC (C18:2/C18:2).