Meta-Biol

• Pathways

Eicosanoids, oxygenated, 20-carbon fatty acids, are autocrine and paracrine signaling molecules that modulate physiological processes including pain, fever, inflammation, blood clot formation, smooth muscle contraction and relaxation, and the release of gastric acid. Eicosanoids are synthesized in humans primarily from arachidonic acid (all-cis 5,8,11,14-eicosatetraenoic acid) that is released from membrane phospholipids. Once released, arachidonic acid is acted on by prostaglandin G/H synthases (PTGS, also known as cyclooxygenases (COX)) to form prostaglandins and thromboxanes, by arachidonate lipoxygenases (ALOX) to form leukotrienes, epoxygenases (cytochrome P450s and epoxide hydrolase) to form epoxides such as 15-eicosatetraenoic acids, and omega-hydrolases (cytochrome P450s) to form hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (Buczynski et al. 2009, Vance & Vance 2008).
Levels of free arachidonic acid in the cell are normally very low so the rate of synthesis of eicosanoids is determined primarily by the activity of phospholipase A2, which mediates phospholipid cleavage to generate free arachidonic acid. The enzymes involved in arachidonic acid metabolism are typically constitutively expressed so the subset of these enzymes expressed by a cell determines the range of eicosanoids it can synthesize.
Eicosanoids are unstable, undergoing conversion to inactive forms with half-times under physiological conditions of seconds or minutes. Many of these reactions appear to be spontaneous.

Lipids are hydrophobic but otherwise chemically diverse molecules that play a wide variety of roles in human biology. They include ketone bodies, fatty acids, triacylglycerols, phospholipids and sphingolipids, eicosanoids, cholesterol, bile salts, steroid hormones, and fat-soluble vitamins. They function as a major source of energy (fatty acids, triacylglycerols, and ketone bodies), are major constituents of cell membranes (cholesterol and phospholipids), play a major role in their own digestion and uptake (bile salts), and participate in numerous signaling and regulatory processes (steroid hormones, eicosanoids, phosphatidylinositols, and sphingolipids) (Vance & Vance 2008 - URL).

The central steroid in human biology is cholesterol, obtained from animal fats consumed in the diet or synthesized de novo from acetyl-coenzyme A. (Vegetable fats contain various sterols but no cholesterol.) Cholesterol is an essential constituent of lipid bilayer membranes and is the starting point for the biosyntheses of bile acids and salts, steroid hormones, and vitamin D. Bile acids and salts are mostly synthesized in the liver. They are released into the intestine and function as detergents to solubilize dietary fats. Steroid hormones are mostly synthesized in the adrenal gland and gonads. They regulate energy metabolism and stress responses (glucocorticoids), salt balance (mineralocorticoids), and sexual development and function (androgens and estrogens). At the same time, chronically elevated cholesterol levels in the body are associated with the formation of atherosclerotic lesions and hence increased risk of heart attacks and strokes. The human body lacks a mechanism for degrading excess cholesterol, although an appreciable amount is lost daily in the form of bile salts and acids that escape recycling.

Aspects of lipid metabolism currently annotated in Reactome include lipid digestion, mobilization, and transport; fatty acid, triacylglycerol, and ketone body metabolism; peroxisomal lipid metabolism; phospholipid and sphingolipid metabolism; cholesterol biosynthesis; bile acid and bile salt metabolism; and steroid hormone biosynthesis.

Metabolic processes in human cells generate energy through the oxidation of molecules consumed in the diet and mediate the synthesis of diverse essential molecules not taken in the diet as well as the inactivation and elimination of toxic ones generated endogenously or present in the extracellular environment. The processes of energy metabolism can be classified into two groups according to whether they involve carbohydrate-derived or lipid-derived molecules, and within each group it is useful to distinguish processes that mediate the breakdown and oxidation of these molecules to yield energy from ones that mediate their synthesis and storage as internal energy reserves. Synthetic reactions are conveniently grouped by the chemical nature of the end products, such as nucleotides, amino acids and related molecules, and porphyrins. Detoxification reactions (biological oxidations) are likewise conveniently classified by the chemical nature of the toxin.

At the same time, all of these processes are tightly integrated. Intermediates in reactions of energy generation are starting materials for biosyntheses of amino acids and other compounds, broad-specificity oxidoreductase enzymes can be involved in both detoxification reactions and biosyntheses, and hormone-mediated signaling processes function to coordinate the operation of energy-generating and energy-storing reactions and to couple these to other biosynthetic processes.