Acyl glycerols triacylglycerols

Triacylglycerols arise not by acylation of glycerol itself but by a sequence of steps m which the first stage is acyl transfer to l glycerol 3 phosphate (from reduction of dihy droxyacetone 3 phosphate formed as described m Section 25 21) The product of this stage IS called a phosphatidic acid... 

Triacylglycerol (Section 26 2) A derivative of glycerol (12 3 propanetnol) m which the three oxygens bear acyl groups denved from fatty acids... 

Esters of glycerol, called glycerol triesters, triacylglycerols, or triglycerides, are abundant natural products. The most important group of glycerol triesters includes those in which each acyl group is unbranched and has 14 or more carbon atoms. 

The metabolic breakdown of triacylglycerols begins with their hydrolysis to yield glycerol plus fatty acids. The reaction is catalyzed by a lipase, whose mechanism of action is shown in Figure 29.2. The active site of the enzyme contains a catalytic triad of aspartic acid, histidine, and serine residues, which act cooperatively to provide the necessary acid and base catalysis for the individual steps. Hydrolysis is accomplished by two sequential nucleophilic acyl substitution reactions, one that covalently binds an acyl group to the side chain -OH of a serine residue on the enzyme and a second that frees the fatty acid from the enzyme. 

Triacylglycerols and some phosphoglycerols are synthesized by progressive acylation of glycerol 3-phosphate. The pathway bifurcates at phosphatidate, forming inositol phospholipids and cardiolipin on the one hand and triacylglycerol and choline and ethanolamine phospholipids on the other. 

The free fatty acids formed by lipolysis can be reconverted in the tissue to acyl-CoA by acyl-CoA synthetase and reesterified with glycerol 3-phosphate to form triacylglycerol. Thus, there is a continuous cycle of lipolysis and reesterification within the tissue. However, when the rate of reesterification is not sufficient to match the rate of lipolysis, free fatty acids accumulate and diffuse into the plasma, where they bind to albumin and raise the concentration of plasma free fatty acids. 

Figure 11.7 Synthesis of triaq/lglyceroL The precursors are glycerol 3-phosphate and long-chain acyl-CoA. R, is a saturated fatty acid, R2 is an unsaturated fatty acid (one or two doubte bonds) and R3 is either saturated or unsaturated. The activity of GPAT-1 regulates triacylglycerol synthesis. In all reactions involving RCO.SCoA, the CoASH is released but is not shown in this diagram. P,- - phosphate.

The three acyl residues of a fat molecule may differ in terms of their chain length and the number of double bonds they contain. This results in a large number of possible combinations of individual fat molecules. When extracted from biological materials, fats always represent mixtures of very similar compounds, which differ in their fatty acid residues. A chiral center can arise at the middle C atom (sn -C-2) of a triacylglycerol if the two external fatty acids are different. The monoacylglycerols and diacylglycerols shown here are also chiral compounds. Nutritional fats contain palmitic, stearic, oleic acid, and linoleic acid particularly often. Unsaturated fatty acids are usually found at the central C atom of glycerol. 

Transfer of an additional acyl residue to DAG forms triacylglycerols (enzyme diacyl-glycerol acyltransferase 2.3.1.20). This completes the biosynthesis of neutral fats. They are packaged into VLDLs by the liver and released into the blood. Finally, they are stored by adipocytes in the form of insoluble fat droplets. 

Storage as triacylglycerols requires activation of the fatty acid by conversion to acyl CoA with glycerol 3-phosphate as the precursor for the glycerol backbone. 

Triacylglycerols are formed by reaction of two molecules of fatty acyl-CoA with glycerol 3-phosphate to form phosphatidic acid this product is dephosphoiylated to a diacylglycerol, then acylated by a third molecule of fatty acyl-CoA to yield a triacylglycerol. 

The first steps of glycerophospholipid synthesis are shared with the pathway to triacylglycerols (Fig. 21-17) two fatty acyl groups are esterified to C-l and C-2 of L-glycerol 3-phosphate to form phosphatidic acid. Commonly but not invariably, the fatty acid at C-l is saturated and that at C-2 is unsaturated. A second route to phosphatidic acid is the phosphorylation of a diacyl-glycerol by a specific kinase. 

PA is the precursor of many other phosphoglycerides. The steps in its synthesis from glycerol phosphate and two fatty acyl CoAs were illustrated in Figure 16.14, p. 187, in which PA is shown as a precursor of triacylglycerol. [Note Essentially all cells except mature ery-. throcytes can synthesize phospholipids, whereas triacylglycerol synthesis occurs essentially only in liver, adipose tissue, lactating mammary glands, and intestinal mucosal cells.]... 

Increased triacylglycerol synthesis Triacylglycerol synthesis is favored because fatty acyl CoA is available both from de rxxo synthesis from acetyl CoA and from hydrolysis of the triacylglycerol component of chylomicron remnants removed from Ihe blood by hepatocytes (see p. 176). Glycerol 3-phosphate, Ihe... 

The synthesis of triacylglycerol takes place in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). In liver and adipose tissue, fatty adds in the cytosol obtained from the diet or from de novo synthesis of palmitic add become inserted into the ER membrane. The reactions are shown in Fig. 13-10. Membrane-bound acyl-CoA synthetase activates two fatty acids, and membrane-bound acyl-CoA transferase esterifies them with glycerol 3-phosphate, to form phosphatidic acid. Phosphatidic acid phosphatase releases phosphate, and in the membrane, 1,2-diacylglycerol is esterified with a third molecule of fatty acid. 

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