Plasmalogens and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids

McHowat J., Creer M.H., Hicks K.K., Jones J.H., McCrory R., Kennedy R.H. Induction of Ca-independent PLA2 and conservation of plasmalogen polyunsaturated fatty acids in diabetic heart. Am. J. Physiol. Endocrinol. Metab. 279 (2000) E25-E32. 

Rudiger, M, von Baehr, A, Haupt, R, Wauer, RR and Rilstow, B (2000) Preterm infants with high polyunsaturated fatty acid and plasmalogen content in tracheal aspirates develop bronchopulmonary dysplasia less often. Crit Care Med, 28, 1572-1577. 

The fatty acid composition of muscle lipids may show quantitative alterations in diseased muscle. Thus lecithin isolated from human dystrophic muscle had an increased amount of oleic but diminished linoleic acid (Tl). Changes have been recorded also in the fatty acid composition of lecithin from denervated muscle (PI). Recently it has been reported (K16) that the fatty acid pattern of muscle phosphatides from patients with the autosomal dominant form of myotonia congenita differed markedly from that of the autosomal recessive form and from the normal. Tani and his co-workers (F7) have made a detailed study of the phospholipids of normal and dystrophic mouse tissues. In normal mice phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine from skeletal and heart muscles had a very high content of 20-22-carbon polyunsaturated acids, in comparison with those for other tissues the most abundant was docosahexaenoic acid. In dystrophic mice there was a sharp decrease in the proportion of docosahexaenoic acid in the phosphoglycerides from skeletal and heart muscles, suggesting the likelihood of important alterations in muscle membranes. Somewhat similar studies have been reported by Owens (05), who also observed a fall in the proportion of docosahexaenoic acid, mainly in the phosphatidylcholine -j- choline plasmalogen fraction. 

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