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Mammalian lipids: structure, synthesis and function
Lipids are essential constituents of cellular membranes. Once regarded merely as structural components, lipids have taken centre stage with the discovery of their roles in cell signalling and in the generation of bioactive metabolites. Lipids regulate many physiological functions of cells and altera...
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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Portland Press Ltd.
2021
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8578989/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34415021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/EBC20200067 |
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author | Cockcroft, Shamshad |
author_facet | Cockcroft, Shamshad |
author_sort | Cockcroft, Shamshad |
collection | PubMed |
description | Lipids are essential constituents of cellular membranes. Once regarded merely as structural components, lipids have taken centre stage with the discovery of their roles in cell signalling and in the generation of bioactive metabolites. Lipids regulate many physiological functions of cells and alterations in membrane lipid metabolism are associated with major diseases including cancer, Type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and immune disorders. Understanding lipid diversity, their synthesis and metabolism to generate signalling molecules will provide insight into the fundamental function of the cell. This review summarises the biosynthesis of the lipids of the mammalian cell; phospholipids, sphingolipids and cholesterol and how lipid diversity is achieved. The fatty acids (FAs) are the main building blocks of lipids and contribute to the diversity. Lipid synthesis is intimately connected to their transport within cells; the contribution by proteins that transport lipids, lipid transport proteins will be described. Cellular lipids are metabolised by phospholipases, lipid kinases and phosphatases to make new bioactive metabolites. These transient bioactive metabolites allow cells to respond to the external environment to maintain cellular health. The function of individual metabolites is also highlighted. Bioactive metabolites can be second messengers, or released to the external medium to regulate other cells. Alternatively, bioactive lipids also provide a platform for reversible recruitment of proteins to membranes using their lipid-binding domains. The wide range of physiological processes in which a specific involvement of lipids has been identified explains the need for lipid diversity present in mammalian cells. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8578989 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Portland Press Ltd. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-85789892021-11-18 Mammalian lipids: structure, synthesis and function Cockcroft, Shamshad Essays Biochem Metabolism Lipids are essential constituents of cellular membranes. Once regarded merely as structural components, lipids have taken centre stage with the discovery of their roles in cell signalling and in the generation of bioactive metabolites. Lipids regulate many physiological functions of cells and alterations in membrane lipid metabolism are associated with major diseases including cancer, Type II diabetes, cardiovascular disease and immune disorders. Understanding lipid diversity, their synthesis and metabolism to generate signalling molecules will provide insight into the fundamental function of the cell. This review summarises the biosynthesis of the lipids of the mammalian cell; phospholipids, sphingolipids and cholesterol and how lipid diversity is achieved. The fatty acids (FAs) are the main building blocks of lipids and contribute to the diversity. Lipid synthesis is intimately connected to their transport within cells; the contribution by proteins that transport lipids, lipid transport proteins will be described. Cellular lipids are metabolised by phospholipases, lipid kinases and phosphatases to make new bioactive metabolites. These transient bioactive metabolites allow cells to respond to the external environment to maintain cellular health. The function of individual metabolites is also highlighted. Bioactive metabolites can be second messengers, or released to the external medium to regulate other cells. Alternatively, bioactive lipids also provide a platform for reversible recruitment of proteins to membranes using their lipid-binding domains. The wide range of physiological processes in which a specific involvement of lipids has been identified explains the need for lipid diversity present in mammalian cells. Portland Press Ltd. 2021-11 2021-11-02 /pmc/articles/PMC8578989/ /pubmed/34415021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/EBC20200067 Text en © 2021 The Author(s). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . Open access for this article was enabled by the participation of University College London in an all-inclusive Read & Publish pilot with Portland Press and the Biochemical Society under a transformative agreement with JISC. |
spellingShingle | Metabolism Cockcroft, Shamshad Mammalian lipids: structure, synthesis and function |
title | Mammalian lipids: structure, synthesis and function |
title_full | Mammalian lipids: structure, synthesis and function |
title_fullStr | Mammalian lipids: structure, synthesis and function |
title_full_unstemmed | Mammalian lipids: structure, synthesis and function |
title_short | Mammalian lipids: structure, synthesis and function |
title_sort | mammalian lipids: structure, synthesis and function |
topic | Metabolism |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8578989/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34415021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/EBC20200067 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT cockcroftshamshad mammalianlipidsstructuresynthesisandfunction |