Conjugated fatty acids formation mechanisms

Figure 26.2. Summary of mechanisms involved in the formation of conjugated fatty acids.

Oxidation to CO of biodiesel results in the formation of hydroperoxides. The formation of a hydroperoxide follows a well-known peroxidation chain mechanism. Oxidative lipid modifications occur through lipid peroxidation mechanisms in which free radicals and reactive oxygen species abstract a methylene hydrogen atom from polyunsaturated fatty acids, producing a carbon-centered lipid radical. Spontaneous rearrangement of the 1,4-pentadiene yields a conjugated diene, which reacts with molecular oxygen to form a lipid peroxyl radical. 

Hamberg, M. 1992. Metabolism of 6,9,12-octadecatrienoic acid in the red alga Litho-thamnion corallioides mechanism of formation of a conjugated tetraenes fatty acid. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm., 188,1220-1227. 

Some metabolic conjugative processes result in the production of lipophilic derivatives that are not readily eliminated. While their physical properties are different from the classical hydrophilic conjugates, the mechanism of formation clearly defines them as conjugates (i.e., they are formed as the result of a union of xenobiotic metabolites with endogenous molecules). The reactions involve the coupling of xenobiotic acids and alcohols with endogenous intermediates of lipid synthesis (i. e., the acids with glycerol and cholesterol and the alcohols with the fatty acids). 

The mechanism by which xenobiotic alcohols or esters are converted to fatty acid esters has not been studied. They could be formed by the action of lyase enzymes in the presence of fatty acid glyceryl esters, as in the conversion of farnesol to farnesol fatty acid esters (150). Some lipolytic acyl hydrolase enzymes from plants readily catalyze the transfer of lipid-bound fatty acids to low MW alcohol acceptors (150.151) and enzymes of this class could be responsible for the occasional formation of fatty acid conjugates of xenobiotic alcohols. Mechanisms involving fatty acid acyl CoA, phospholipids, or direct esterification with fatty acids might also be involved (1 ). 

Fig. 6. Three irnportam oxidative pathways for the metabolism of polyunsaturated fatty acids. A. The principal steps in the formation of prostaglandin endoperoxides from arachidonic acid. B. Likely mechanism for the formation of hydroperoxy cis.trans conjugated fatly acids by autooxidalion or by lipoxygena.sc.s. In the latter case, positional as well as stereospecificity arc normally found. The formed hydroperoxides may then be enzymatically transformed into leukotrienes (not shown) or to hydroxy acids. C. The enzymatic sequence in cytochrome P-450 mediated oxygenation. The first electron is donated from NADPH via the f lavoprotein (Fp) NADPH-cytochrome-P-450-reductase. while the second electron comes either from NADPH or NADH. In this way the monooxygenase enzymes inlrrxluce one oxygen from air into the substrate.

Autoxidation of CLA does not proceed without initiation. Even when initiation occurs, we rarely have a complete understanding of the active oxygen species involved. Assigning mechanisms on the basis of oxidation products alone is heuristic. It has been suggested that the dioxetane formation is initiated by the ene reaction (1-3,5). In the oxidation of methylene-interrupted fatty acid double bonds, the primary products are almost exclusively LOOM that arose by the ene mechanism. In fatty acids such as CLA, the ene mechanism requires, at least in part, separating double bonds from conjugation. It is therefore not surprising that prod-... 

Oxidation causes the formation of hydroperoxides and conjugated compounds, which by cleavage give aldehydes, alcohols, ketones, lactones, acids, esters, and hydrocarbons. Radical mechanisms lead to the formation of dimers, other oligomers, and oxidized TAG. The latter have one or more acyl group with an extra oxygen (hydroxy, keto, epoxy derivatives). Other oxidation products are TAG with short-chain fatty acyl and n-oxo fatty acyl groups. 

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