Lipiidseteks

Lipiidseteks is a term used in Estonian-language lipidomics to denote a curated set or collection of lipids considered together in a study or analysis. It signals a grouping rather than a single molecule and is often used to facilitate data organization, comparison, and interpretation across experiments.

Etymology and usage context: The word combines lipiid, meaning lipid, with the Estonian suffix -seteks, which conveys the idea of a set or subset. In practice, lipiidseteks are defined by researchers based on shared characteristics or experimental goals, and the term appears primarily in Estonian theses, protocols, and articles. In English-language literature, similar concepts are more commonly described as lipid sets, lipid subsets, or curated lipid panels.

Composition and classifications: A lipiidseteks may be formed along several criteria, including lipid class (glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, sterols), structural features (acyl chain length, number of double bonds), or biological function (membrane components, signaling lipids). In targeted lipidomics, lipiidseteks can represent panels of analytes selected for quantitative measurement or for pathway-focused investigations.

Applications: Lipid sets are used for enrichment analyses, method development, and data normalization or comparison across samples. They aid in standardizing reporting, enabling reproducibility, and facilitating comparisons between studies that utilize different instrumentation or databases (e.g., LIPID MAPS classification).

See also: Lipidomics, Lipids, Lipid databases, Mass spectrometry-based lipid analysis.

Note: The term is primarily found in Estonian-language sources and may be translated or described differently in non-Estonian contexts.