Lipids are a broad group of organic compounds which include fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins, monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include storing energy, signaling, and acting as structural components of cell membranes. Lipids have applications in the cosmetic and food industries, and in nanotechnology.
Lipidomics is the large-scale study of pathways and networks of cellular lipids in biological systems. The word "lipidome" is used to describe the complete lipid profile within a cell, tissue, organism, or ecosystem and is a subset of the "metabolome" which also includes other major classes of biological molecules. Lipidomics is a relatively recent research field that has been driven by rapid advances in technologies such as mass spectrometry (MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, fluorescence spectroscopy, dual polarisation interferometry and computational methods, coupled with the recognition of the role of lipids in many metabolic diseases such as obesity, atherosclerosis, stroke, hypertension and diabetes. This rapidly expanding field complements the huge progress made in genomics and proteomics, all of which constitute the family of systems biology.
Glycolipids are lipids with a carbohydrate attached by a glycosidic (covalent) bond. Their role is to maintain the stability of the cell membrane and to facilitate cellular recognition, which is crucial to the immune response and in the connections that allow cells to connect to one another to form tissues. Glycolipids are found on the surface of all eukaryotic cell membranes, where they extend from the phospholipid bilayer into the extracellular environment.
Sphingolipids are a class of lipids containing a backbone of sphingoid bases, which are a set of aliphatic amino alcohols that includes sphingosine. They were discovered in brain extracts in the 1870s and were named after the mythological sphinx because of their enigmatic nature. These compounds play important roles in signal transduction and cell recognition. Sphingolipidoses, or disorders of sphingolipid metabolism, have particular impact on neural tissue. A sphingolipid with a terminal hydroxyl group is a ceramide. Other common groups bonded to the terminal oxygen atom include phosphocholine, yielding a sphingomyelin, and various sugar monomers or dimers, yielding cerebrosides and globosides, respectively. Cerebrosides and globosides are collectively known as glycosphingolipids.
Lipid A is a lipid component of an endotoxin held responsible for the toxicity of gram-negative bacteria. It is the innermost of the three regions of the lipopolysaccharide (LPS), also called endotoxin molecule, and its hydrophobic nature allows it to anchor the LPS to the outer membrane. While its toxic effects can be damaging, the sensing of lipid A by the immune system may also be critical for the onset of immune responses to gram-negative infection, and for the subsequent successful fight against the infection.
Glycerophospholipids or phosphoglycerides are glycerol-based phospholipids. They are the main component of biological membranes in eukaryotic cells. They are a type of lipid, of which its composition affects membrane structure and properties. Two major classes are known: those for bacteria and eukaryotes and a separate family for archaea.
Triacsin C is an inhibitor of long fatty acyl CoA synthetase that has been isolated from Streptomyces aureofaciens. It blocks β-cell apoptosis, induced by fatty acids (lipoapoptosis) in a rat model of obesity. In addition, it blocks the de novo synthesis of triglycerides, diglycerides, and cholesterol esters, thus interfering with lipid metabolism.
A simple lipid is a fatty acid ester of different alcohols and carries no other substance. These lipids belong to a heterogeneous class of predominantly nonpolar compounds, mostly insoluble in water, but soluble in nonpolar organic solvents such as chloroform and benzene.
Globosides are a sub-class of the lipid class glycosphingolipid with three to nine sugar molecules as the side chain of ceramide. The sugars are usually a combination of N-acetylgalactosamine, D-glucose or D-galactose. One characteristic of globosides is that the "core" sugars consists of Glucose-Galactose-Galactose (Ceramide-βGlc4-1βGal4-1αGal), like in the case of the most basic globoside, globotriaosylceramide (Gb3), also known as pk-antigen. Another important characteristic of globosides is that they are neutral at pH 7, because they usually do not contain neuraminic acid, a sugar with an acidic carboxy-group. However, some globosides with the core structure Cer-Glc-Gal-Gal do contain neuraminic acid, e.g. the globo-series glycosphingolipid "SSEA-4-antigen".
In enzymology, a lipid-A-disaccharide synthase is an enzyme that catalyzes the chemical reaction
Fatty acid desaturase 1 (FADS1) is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the FADS1 gene.
Acyl-CoA thioesterase 2, also known as ACOT2, is an enzyme which in humans is encoded by the ACOT2 gene.
Acyl-coenzyme A thioesterase 4 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ACOT4 gene.
Acyl-coenzyme A thioesterase 11 also known as StAR-related lipid transfer protein 14 (STARD14) is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ACOT11 gene. This gene encodes a protein with acyl-CoA thioesterase activity towards medium (C12) and long-chain (C18) fatty acyl-CoA substrates which relies on its StAR-related lipid transfer domain. Expression of a similar murine protein in brown adipose tissue is induced by cold exposure and repressed by warmth. Expression of the mouse protein has been associated with obesity, with higher expression found in obesity-resistant mice compared with obesity-prone mice. Alternative splicing results in two transcript variants encoding different isoforms.
Lipid droplets, also referred to as lipid bodies, oil bodies or adiposomes, are lipid-rich cellular organelles that regulate the storage and hydrolysis of neutral lipids and are found largely in the adipose tissue. They also serve as a reservoir for cholesterol and acyl-glycerols for membrane formation and maintenance. Lipid droplets are found in all eukaryotic organisms and store a large portion of lipids in mammalian adipocytes. Initially, these lipid droplets were considered to merely serve as fat depots, but since the discovery in the 1990s of proteins in the lipid droplet coat that regulate lipid droplet dynamics and lipid metabolism, lipid droplets are seen as highly dynamic organelles that play a very important role in the regulation of intracellular lipid storage and lipid metabolism. The role of lipid droplets outside of lipid and cholesterol storage has recently begun to be elucidated and includes a close association to inflammatory responses through the synthesis and metabolism of eicosanoids and to metabolic disorders such as obesity, cancer, and atherosclerosis. In non-adipocytes, lipid droplets are known to play a role in protection from lipotoxicity by storage of fatty acids in the form of neutral triacylglycerol, which consists of three fatty acids bound to glycerol. Alternatively, fatty acids can be converted to lipid intermediates like diacylglycerol (DAG), ceramides and fatty acyl-CoAs. These lipid intermediates can impair insulin signaling, which is referred to as lipid-induced insulin resistance and lipotoxicity. Lipid droplets also serve as platforms for protein binding and degradation. Finally, lipid droplets are known to be exploited by pathogens such as the hepatitis C virus, the dengue virus and Chlamydia trachomatis among others.
Acyl-CoA thioesterase 6 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ACOT6 gene. The protein, also known as C14orf42, is an enzyme with thioesterase activity.
Acyl-CoA synthetase family member 3 is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the ACSF3 gene.
UDP-3-O-(3-hydroxymyristoyl)glucosamine N-acyltransferase is an enzyme with systematic name (3R)-3-hydroxymyristoyl-(acyl-carrier protein):UDP-3-O-( -3-hydroxymyristoyl)-alpha-D-glucosamine N-acetyltransferase. This enzyme catalyses the following chemical reaction
Acyl-CoA thioesterase 1 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ACOT1 gene.
Acyl-CoA synthetase short-chain family member 3 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ACSS3 gene.
