Free fatty acid biological activity

The barrier properties of human skin have long been an area of multidisciplinary research. Skin is one of the most difficult biological barriers to penetrate and traverse, primarily due to the presence of the stratum corneum. The stratum cor-neum is composed of comeocytes laid in a brick-and-mortar arrangement with layers of lipid. The corneocytes are partially dehydrated, anuclear, metabolically active cells completely filled with bundles of keratin with a thick and insoluble envelope replacing the cell membrane [29]. The primary lipids in the stratum corneum are ceramides, free sterols, free fatty acids and triglycerides [30], which form lamellar lipid sheets between the corneocytes. These unique structural features of the stratum comeum provide an excellent barrier to the penetration of most molecules, particularly large, hydrophilic molecules such as ASOs. 

Albumin is the main plasma protein, with a molecular weight of about 69 kDa, and is important for normal plasma oncotic pressure and the transport of many biologically active substances, including free fatty acids, phospholipids (e.g., lysophosphatidic acid), prostanoids, heavy metals, steroid hormones, and vitamins. Albumin-bound lysophosphatidic acid serves as a survival factor for cultured mouse proximal tubular cells (L4). Lysophosphatidic acid is an exquisitely potent inhibitor of apoptosis, comparable with growth factors, for example, EGF. The influence of lysophosphatidic acid on the survival of tubular cells depends on the activation of phophatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) with subsequent activation of Akt and pp70s6k. pp70s6k is a rapamycin-inhibited kinase, which plays an important role in the cellular proliferation. Lysophosphatidic acid also serves as a proliferation factor of mouse proximal tubular cells. Further albumin-bound factors important for the survival of the proximal tubular cells are phosphatidic acid... 

Some enzymes and enzyme systems are still active at the temperature of frozen storage (123-132). Such enzymatic activity, especially of proteases, may cause loss of biological activity of actomyosin and other muscle proteins. Products of such enzymatic activity, e.g. free fatty acids and formaldehyde, may effect a secondary denaturation of muscle proteins. 

Only the free form of the fatty acid precursors of eicosanoids can be utilized by the enzymes for conversion to the biologically active metabolites. However, the amount of precursor free fatty acid in the cytoplasm and circulating is usually low and so too is basal eicosanoid formation. Eurthermore, basal eicosanoid formation may depend on dietary and adipose tissue fatty acid composition. The amount of eicosanoid precursor free fatty acids is controlled to a large extent by incorporation and release from cellular phospholipids. Which eicosanoids are produced during stimulated synthesis may depend on membrane fatty acid composition as well as the cell type involved. Dietary fatty acid composition, therefore, has the potential to effect basal and stimulated synthesis of eicosanoids and influence endothelial function and thrombotic and inflammatory responses. 

Curtiss, L.K. and Edgington, T.S. (1981) Biological activity of the immuno-regulatory lipoprotein, LDL-In, is independent of its free fatty acid content. Journal of Immunology, 126,1382-1386. 

The unique characteristic of free peroxyl radicals formed from unsaturated fatty acids is their ability to transform into cyclic radicals. This reaction is of utmost importance because it leads to highly biologically active compounds. Enzymatic oxidation of arachidonic acid catalyzed by COX results in the formation of prostaglandins having various physiopathological... 

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