Fatty acids, long-chain mitochondrial

Carnitine is a vitamin-like quaternary ammonium salt, playing an important role in the human energy metabolism by facilitating the transport of long-chained fatty acids across the mitochondrial membranes. An easy, fast, and convenient procedure for the separation of the enantiomers of carnitine and 0-acylcarnitines has been reported on a lab-made teicoplanin-containing CSP [61]. The enantioresolution of carnitine and acetyl carnitine was enhanced when tested on a TAG CSP, prepared in an identical way [45]. Higher a values were reached also in the case of A-40,926 CSP [41]. 

The enzymes of fatty acid oxidation in animal cells are located in the mitochondrial matrix, as demonstrated in 1948 by Eugene P. Kennedy and Albert Lehninger. The fatty acids with chain lengths of 12 or fewer carbons enter mitochondria without the help of membrane transporters. Those with 14 or more carbons, which constitute the majority of the FFA obtained in the diet or released from adipose tissue, cannot pass directly through the mitochondrial membranes—they must first undergo the three enzymatic reactions of the carnitine shuttle. The first reaction is catalyzed by a family of isozymes (different isozymes specific for fatty acids having short, intermediate, or long carbon chains) present... 

Primary carnitine deficiency is caused by a deficiency in the plasma-membrane carnitine transporter. Intracellular carnitine deficiency impairs the entry of long-chain fatty acids into the mitochondrial matrix. Consequently, long-chain fatty acids are not available for p oxidation and energy production, and the production of ketone bodies (which are used by the brain) is also impaired. Regulation of intramitochondrial free CoA is also affected, with accumulation of acyl-CoA esters in the mitochondria. This in turn affects the pathways of intermediary metabolism that require CoA, for example the TCA cycle, pyruvate oxidation, amino acid metabolism, and mitochondrial and peroxisomal -oxidation. Cardiac muscle is affected by progressive cardiomyopathy (the most common form of presentation), the CNS is affected by encephalopathy caused by hypoketotic hypoglycaemia, and skeletal muscle is affected by myopathy. 

These findings are consistent with impaired fatty-acid oxidation reduced mitochondrial entry of long-chain acylcarnitine esters due to inhibition of the transport protein (carnitine palmityl transferase 1) and failure of the respiratory chain at complex II. Another previously reported abnormality of the respiratory chain in propofol-infusion syndrome is a reduction in cytochrome C oxidase activity, with reduced complex IV activity and a reduced cytochrome oxidase ratio of 0.004. Propofol can also impair the mitochondrial electron transport system in isolated heart preparations. 

Carnitine Carries Long-Chain Activated Fatty Acids into the Mitochondrial Matrix... 

On the basis of data obtained, it is possible to suggest that tolerance to water stress is determined by the cell antioxidant system protecting unsaturated C fatty acids and unsaturated very-long-chain fatty acids against modifications induced by the oxidative stress, for example activation of free radical processes [20]. Changes in the C fatty acids in the mitochondrial membrane lipids are noted for the first time. Just the unsaturation coefficient of C fatty acids was correlated with the highest rates of... 

Premature infants are born with a relative inability to synthesize carnitine, although at birth the plasma concentration of carnitine is higher in pre-term neonates than in term infants (Novak et aL, 1981). It has been suggested that the long chain fatty acids found in intravenous lipid emulsions may not be adequately metabolized because of a relative carnitine deficiency (Penn et al., 1980). Carnitine facilitates the transfer of free fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane. In its absence, P-oxidation of long chain fatty acids is curtailed, and cellular energy metabolism is... 

R-(-)-GABOB is an inhibitory neurotransmitter24 that has been used in the treatment of human epilepsy.25 It also has hypertensive properties.26 Interestingly, GABOB was first prepared by Tomita in 1923.27 Carnitine is used to treat myocardial ischemia and carnitine deficiency. a it is also important for the transport of long chain fatty acids through the mitochondrial membrane and is used for the treatment of myopathic deficiency.39... 

The second material is a end functionalized cation with trimethylammonium carrying the positive charge. This functionality is similar to that of in-vivo carnitine, which fimction as a complexing carrier for the transport of long chain activated fatty acids into the mitochondrial matrix (6). The second material is prepared in two steps initially 4-chlorobutyryl chloride is reacted onto the cohydroxyl end-group of PTMC, finally trimethylamine displaces the chloride to introduce the cationic ammonium group. 

FIGURE 11.2 Roles of carnitine in the movement of long chain fatty acids into the mitochondrial matrix. 

All of the other enzymes of the /3-oxidation pathway are located in the mitochondrial matrix. Short-chain fatty acids, as already mentioned, are transported into the matrix as free acids and form the acyl-CoA derivatives there. However, long-chain fatty acyl-CoA derivatives cannot be transported into the matrix directly. These long-chain derivatives must first be converted to acylearnitine derivatives, as shown in Figure 24.9. Carnitine acyltransferase I, located on the outer side of the inner mitochondrial membrane, catalyzes the formation of... 

Pollitt, R. J., 1995. Disorders of mitochondrial long-chain fatty acid oxidation. Journal of Inherited Metabolic Disease 18 473—490. 

Long-chain fatty acids (e.g., palmitate Cig) diffuse through pores in the outer mitochondrial membrane, and then form long-chain acyl-CoA esters catalyzed reversibly by palmitoyl-CoA synthase (assumed to be on the inner face of the outer membrane). 

Figure 3. Mitochondrial fatty acid oxidation. Long-chain fatty acids are converted to their CoA-esters as described in the text, and their fatty-acyl-groups transferred to CoA in the matrix by the concerted action of CPT 1, the acylcarnitine/carnitine exchange carrier and CPT (A) as described in the text. Medium-chain and short-chain fatty acids (Cg or less) diffuse directly into the matrix where they are converted to their acyl-CoA esters by a acyl-CoA synthase. The mechanism of p-oxidation is shown below (B). Each cycle of P-oxidation removes -CH2-CH2- as an acetyl unit until the fatty acids are completely converted to acetyl-CoA. The enzymes catalyzing each stage of P-oxidation have different but overlapping specificities. In muscle mitochondria, most acetyl-CoA is oxidized to CO2 and H2O by the citrate cycle (Figure 4) some is converted to acylcamitine by carnitine acetyltransferase (associated with the inner face of the inner membrane) and exported from the matrix. Some acetyl-CoA (if in excess) is hydrolyzed to acetate and CoASH by acetyl-CoA hydrolase in the matrix. Enzymes ...

The rate of mitochondrial oxidations and ATP synthesis is continually adjusted to the needs of the cell (see reviews by Brand and Murphy 1987 Brown, 1992). Physical activity and the nutritional and endocrine states determine which substrates are oxidized by skeletal muscle. Insulin increases the utilization of glucose by promoting its uptake by muscle and by decreasing the availability of free long-chain fatty acids, and of acetoacetate and 3-hydroxybutyrate formed by fatty acid oxidation in the liver, secondary to decreased lipolysis in adipose tissue. Product inhibition of pyruvate dehydrogenase by NADH and acetyl-CoA formed by fatty acid oxidation decreases glucose oxidation in muscle. 

Acetyl-CoA carboxylase is an allosteric enzyme and is activated by citrate, which increases in concentration in the well-fed state and is an indicator of a plentiful supply of acetyl-CoA. Citrate converts the enzyme from an inactive dimer to an active polymeric form, having a molecular mass of several milhon. Inactivation is promoted by phosphorylation of the enzyme and by long-chain acyl-CoA molecules, an example of negative feedback inhibition by a product of a reaction. Thus, if acyl-CoA accumulates because it is not esterified quickly enough or because of increased lipolysis or an influx of free fatty acids into the tissue, it will automatically reduce the synthesis of new fatty acid. Acyl-CoA may also inhibit the mitochondrial tricarboxylate transporter, thus preventing activation of the enzyme by egress of citrate from the mitochondria into the cytosol. 

Long-Chain Fatty Acids Penetrate the Inner Mitochondrial Membrane as Carnitine Derivatives... 

Figure 22-1. Role of carnitine in the transport of long-chain fatty acids through the inner mitochondrial membrane. Long-chain acyl-CoA cannot pass through the inner mitochondrial membrane, but its metabolic product, acylcarnitine, can. 

Long-chain fatty acids can slowly cross the mitochondrial membrane by themselves, but this is too slow to keep up with their metabolism. The carnitine shuttle provides a transport mechanism and allows control of (3 oxidation. Malonyl-CoA, a precursor for fatty acid synthesis, inhibits the carnitine shuttle and slows down (3 oxidation (Fig. 13-5). 

Long-chain fatty acids must be activated and transported into the mitochondria. Fatty acyl CoA synthetase, on the outer mitochondrial membrane, activates the fatty adds by attaching CoA. The fetty acyl portion is then transferred onto carnitine by carnitine aqdtransferase-I for transport into the mitochondria. The sequence of events is shown in Figure 1-16-2 and indudes the following steps ... 

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