Fatty acid metabolism Flashcards
What is the maximum total ATP yield of palmitate?
104
What are four key groups of lipid?
Non-esterified free fatty acids (NEFA)
Sterols such as cholesterol
Triglycerides (TAG)
Phospholipids
What are 4 key functions of lipids?
1) Energy source (NEFA and TAG)
2) Structural role in the membrane (PL and cholesterol)
3) Protection (TAG) in adipose stores
4) Signalling roles (PL, steroid hormones, prostaglandins)
What are two ways in which we receive lipids?
‘De Novo’ synthesis
Dietary supply
What affect does insulin have on FA metabolism?
Secreted in fed state, leads to storage of fat as TAG
What affect do glucagon and adrenaline have on FA metabolism?
Secreted in the fasted state, glucagon acts on liver to promote release of FA. Adrenaline promotes ATP production and accelerates metabolism
What is the role of bile in fat digestion?
Fat enters the intestine as large triglyceride droplets
Bile salts are released into the intestinal space, they saponify the fats and emulsification them into smaller droplets, thus, increases surface area so lipases have greater action (larger surface area to volume ratio).
Why are do triglyceride droplets need to be treated with bile before digestion?
They are large and hydrophobic so inaccessible to digestive enzymes
What enzymes act on small lipid droplets in the small intestine, what do they do?
Pancreatic lipases act on the small droplets.
Digest TAG producing NEFA and glycerol.
What is produced after small lipid droplets are treated with lipase, why can they be absorbed by the intestinal cells?
Mixed micelles that have a hydrophobic centre and hydrophilic surface, thus can be absorbed by intestinal cells.
What is produced in the ER of absorptive small intestine cells?
Chylomicrons
What are the name of small intestine absorptive cells, how are they adapted to function?
Enterocytes
Villi, lined with the microvilli of the brush border, provide a lot of surface area for absorption.
How is a micelle changed to a chylomicron?
Micelles are absorbed,
digested fatty acids are build up again into TAG, these are combined with cholesterol and phospholipids - forming chylomicrons
Where do newly formed chylomicrons move, what do they join, thus what do they become?
Secreted through the basolateral membrane into the lacteals, where they join lymph to become chyle
What is the role of chylomicrons?
Transport lipids absorbed from the intestine to adipose, cardiac, and skeletal muscle tissue.
What happens to chylomicrons at their target tissue?
Triglyceride components are hydrolyzed by the activity of the lipoprotein lipase, allowing the released free fatty acids to be absorbed by the tissues.
Where is lipoprotein lipase situated?
Sits on the surface of target endothelial cells (on the glycocalyx).
What does lipoprotein lipase do?
Hydrolyses TAG in the chylomicron into NEFA, this releases NEFA for uptake by adipose and muscle.
What upregulates LPL?
Insulin
What happens to absorbed NEFA in fed state in adipose tissue?
Resynthesised to triglyceride, NEFA stored as TAG in the tissue.
What happens to fat in adipose tissue in the fasted state?
TAG broken down into NEFA for release.
What regulates lipolysis in adipose tissue?
Hormone sensitive lipase
What inactivates HSL, what does it do in its inactive form?
Insulin activates protein phosphatase ( removes pi from HSL inactivating it)
Stops conversion of TAG to NEFA
What activates HSL, what does it do in its active form?
Adrenaline activates PKA through the Gs protein cascade. PKA phosphorylates HSL and thus activates it.
Converts TAG to NEFA
What is the normal plasma NEFA range in fed and fasted state?
Fed - 0.3-0.6 mmol/L
Fasted - 0.5-2.0 mmol/L
Why dont all tissues have large TAG stores like adipose?
Prevent compromising cell function.
Large amounts of TAG in non-adipose tissue results in steatosis such as fatty liver disease and cardiac lipotoxicity.
What % of ATP in heart comes from FA supplied as NEFA or chylomicron/VLDL complexes?
60-70%
Why does the heart use FA for ATP?
Most ATP dependent organ so uses FA as energy rich
Does the heart have intracellular TAG stores?
Yes
Which organs rely heavily on FA metabolism?
Renal cortex, heart, skeletal muscle (type I slow twitch)
What are the differences in metabolism of slow and fast twitch skeletal muscle?
Slow twitch: oxidative fibres used more in aerobic exercise. High TAG stores and FA oxidation, many mitochondria.
Fast twitch: glycolytic fibres used more in anaerobic exercise (sprinters). Low TAG stores and FA oxidation, more glycolysis and glycogen stores.
In exercise duration, where does the fuel come from?
At rest all energy for skeletal muscle is from plasma NEFA.
In short exercise (<40mins) around 2/3 comes from plasma glucose and intracellular glycogen.
In endurance exercise (>4hours), 2/3 comes from FA and barely any from glycogen (as used up).
What are the overall steps of FA being used to produce ATP?
Fat enters cell membrane
Fat is activated (addition of CoA)
Fatty acyl-CoA corsses the mitochondrial inner membrane
Fatty acyl CoA is converted to acetyl CoA in FA oxidation
Acetyl CoA can enter the TCA cycle.
How do FA cross the cell membrane of target organs, what is the main transporter?
By either diffusion via flip/flop mechanism or by transporter mediated uptake (allowing more control).
The main transporter is called fatty acid translocase (FAT/CD36).
What does FA bind to inside the cell?
Cytoplasmic fatty acid binding protein (cFABP)
How is FA converted to fatty acyl CoA?
Addition of co-enzyme A. This is catalysed by acyl-CoA synthetase (ACS). It becomes fatty acyl-CoA.
What is the determining step of NEFA conversion?
Addition of co-enzyme A, must be stored or oxidised.