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Apnea of prematurity (AOP) can affect even 85-100% of premature newborns and is related to lack of full maturity of organs. AOP is manifesting by 15-20 seconds cessations of breathing accompanied by bradycardia and oxygen desaturation, what can lead to hypoxia or death. Therefore it is very important to implement the effective and safe treatment immediately after birth. Widely used caffeine citrate, which stimulates the respiratory system, improving the working of the respiratory muscles. However the metabolism of caffeine citrate is difficult in preterm infants due to the immaturity of the hepatic enzyme system, what can lead to the occurrence of side effects and toxicity. To avoid the toxic effects of caffeine, and at the same time the lack of efficacy associated with administration of too low doses, this therapy should be monitored by measuring the concentration of caffeine in the plasma of treated infants. This would provide the maintenance of therapeutic levels of caffeine and optimization of the treatment.

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a lipid compound which plays an important role in the human body, enabling its proper development and functioning. The extracellular LPA is mainly formed of lysophospholipids by the action of autotaxin. LPA activates specific G protein coupled receptors on the cell surface, which results in activation of intracellular signaling pathways, resulting in an increased production of proteins such as VEGF, MMP and uPA. The effect is increased cell proliferation, migration, survival and morphological changes. Aberrant expression of LPA receptors or autotaxin is present in various neoplasms. LPA may be used as a potential diagnostic marker, because its concentrations in the plasma of ovarian cancer patients are significantly higher than in the control group. Scientific research is focused on the searching for the compounds that inhibit the effects of LPA. The promising results of preclinical trials suggest potential usefulness of these compounds in the fight against cancer.

Lipids not only have structural functions, but also play an important role as signaling and regulatory molecules and participate in many cellular processes such as proliferation, differentiation, migration, and apoptosis. Bioactive lipids act both as extracellular mediators, which are associated with receptors on the surface of cells, and intracellular mediators triggering different signal pathways. They are present and active in physiological conditions, and are also involved in the pathogenesis of inflammation, asthma, cancer, diabetes, and hypertension. Bioactive lipids such as derivatives of arachidonic acid and sphingolipids have an important role in renal development, physiology and in many renal diseases. Some of them are potential indicators of kidney damage degree and/or function of the transplanted kidneys.

Sphingolipids are bioactive molecules, which constitute part of the cell membrane. They are involved in signaling and regulation of many cellular processes including cell growth and proliferation, apoptosis, angiogenesis or inflammatory processes. Several methods were described to determine the concentration and conversion of sphingolipids including radioactive labeling, enzymatic methods, MS, RP-HPLC, ESI LC-MS/ MS, UPLC-MS/MS. The development and validation of analytical and extraction methodology for the determination of selected sphingolipids in various biological materials are described in this paper.