Essential fatty acids and lipid mediators. Endocannabinoids

Fatty Acids, Lipid Mediators, and T-Cell Function

Research toward the mechanisms underlying obesity-linked complications has intensified during the last years. As a consequence, it has become clear that metabolism and immunity are intimately linked. Free fatty acids and other lipids acquired in excess by current feeding patterns have been proposed to mediate this link due to their immune modulatory capacity. The functional differences between ...

Nitro-fatty acids: novel anti-inflammatory lipid mediators

Nitro-fatty acids are formed and detected in human plasma, cell membranes, and tissue, modulating metabolic as well as inflammatory signaling pathways. Here we discuss the mechanisms of nitro-fatty acid formation as well as their key chemical and biochemical properties. The electrophilic properties of nitro-fatty acids to activate anti-inflammatory signaling pathways are discussed in detail. A ...

Essential fatty acids and inflammation.

Consequences of Essential Fatty Acids

Essential fatty acids (EFA) are nutrients that form an amazingly large array of bioactive mediators that act on a large family of selective receptors. Nearly every cell and tissue in the human body expresses at least one of these receptors, allowing EFA-based signaling to influence nearly every aspect of human physiology. In this way, the health consequences of specific gene-environment interac...

Metabolism of Essential Fatty Acids

The fat deficiency disease in the rat (I), dog (2), and chick (3) is characterized in part by sharply increased concentrations of one or more trienoic acids in the tissues, as indicated by alkali isomerization analyses. Indeed, the increase in conjugatable triene in the mitochondrial fatty acids may be the first noticeable symptom of the onset of fat deficiency (4). The major triene component o...