Search results for "palm"
showing 10 items of 338 documents
Palmitic Acid: Physiological Role, Metabolism and Nutritional Implications
2017
Palmitic acid (PA) has been for long time negatively depicted for its putative detrimental health effects, shadowing its multiple crucial physiological activities. PA is the most common saturated fatty acid accounting for 20–30% of total fatty acids in the human body and can be provided in the diet or synthesized endogenously via de novo lipogenesis (DNL). PA tissue content seems to be controlled around a well-defined concentration, and changes in its intake do not influence significantly its tissue concentration because the exogenous source is counterbalanced by PA endogenous biosynthesis. Particular physiopathological conditions and nutritional factors may strongly induce DNL, resulting i…
Update on the role of molecular factors and fibroblasts in the pathogenesis of Dupuytren’s disease
2016
The mechanism by which the fibroblast is able to trigger palmar fibromatosis is still not yet fully understood. It would appear certain that the “abnormal” fibroblasts continuously synthesise profibrotic cytokines which are able to determine the activation to myofibroblasts, to stimulate them to the further proliferation and synthesis of other cytokines, to modify the cells’ differentiation and ultrastructural characteristics, as well as the production of matrix and other proteins. Several fibroblast growth factors have been suggested to be responsible of an abnormal cell activation with an aberrantly elevated collagen synthesis and extracellular deposition in Dupuytren’s disease, as TGF-Be…
Antiepileptogenic Effect of Subchronic Palmitoylethanolamide Treatment in a Mouse Model of Acute Epilepsy
2018
Research on the antiepileptic effects of (endo-)cannabinoids has remarkably progressed in the years following the discovery of fundamental role of the endocannabinoid (eCB) system in controlling neural excitability. Moreover, an increasing number of well-documented cases of epilepsy patients exhibiting multi-drug resistance report beneficial effects of cannabis use. Pre-clinical and clinical research has increasingly focused on the antiepileptic effectiveness of exogenous administration of cannabinoids and/or pharmacologically induced increase of eCBs such as anandamide (also known as arachidonoylethanolamide [AEA]). Concomitant research has uncovered the contribution of neuroinflammatory p…
Conjugated linoleic acid isomers in mitochondria
2002
The beneficial effects exerted by low amounts of conjugated linoleic acids (C222222237) suggest that CLA are maximally conserved and raise the question about their mitochondrial oxidizability. Cis-9,trans-11-C18:2 (CLA1) and trans-10,cis-12-C18:2 (CLA2) were compared to cis-9,cis-12-C18:2 (linoleic acid; LA) and cis-9-C16:1 (palmitoleic acid; PA), as substrates for total fatty acid (FA) oxidation and for the enzymatic steps required for the entry of FA into rat liver mitochondria. Oxygen consumption rate was lowest when CLA1 was used as a substrate with that on CLA2 being intermediate between it and the respiration on LA and PA. The order of the radiolabeled FA oxidation rate was PA >> LA >…
Comparative effects of equivalent intakes of 18:3 (n-3) and of marine (n-3) fatty acids on rat cardiac phospholipid contents and fatty acid compositi…
1990
Abstract Three groups of male Sprague-Dawley rats were fed for 4 weeks purified diets containing 15% by weight of oil mixtures varying in the nature and content of (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) but supplying similar levels of 18:2 (n-6) (10% of the total dietary fatty acids) and of saturated fatty acids (19% of the total fatty acids). The First diet (“Low 18:3”) contained small amounts of 18:3 (0.5% of the total fatty acids), the second (“18:3”) contained linolenic acid (10% of the total fatty acids) as the only source of (n-3) PUFA and the third one (“LC (n-3)”) contained the same amount of long chain (n-3) PUFA (mainly 20:5 and 22:6). Heart phospholipid classes were separated b…
Spontaneous domain formation of phospholipase A2 at interfaces: fluorescence microscopy of the interaction of phospholipase A2 with mixed monolayers …
1992
Abstract Fluorescence microscopy has recently been proven to be an ideal tool to investigated the specific interaction of phospholipase A 2 with oriented substrate monolayers. Using a dual labeling technique, it could be shown that phospholipase A 2 can specifically attack and hydrolyze solid analogous l -α-DPPC domains. After a critical extent of monolayer hydrolysis the enzyme itself starts to aggregate forming regular shaped protein domains (Grainger et al. (1990) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 1023. 365–379). In order to confirm that the existence of hydrolysis products in the mononlayer is necessary for the observed aggregation of phospholipase A 2 , mixed monolayers of d - and l -α-DPPC, l -α…
Stability of Asymmetric Lipid Bilayers Assessed by Molecular Dynamics Simulations
2009
The asymmetric insertion of amphiphiles into biological membranes compromises the balance between the inner and outer monolayers. As a result, area expansion of the receiving leaflet and curvature strain may lead to membrane permeation, shape changes, or membrane fusion events. We have conducted both atomistic and coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations of dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayers to study the effect of an asymmetric distribution of lipids between the two monolayers on membrane stability. Highly asymmetric lipid bilayers were found to be surprisingly stable within the submicrosecond time span of the simulations. Even the limiting case of a monolayer immersed in …
AFM study of interaction forces in supported planar DPPC bilayers in the presence of general anesthetic halothane
2006
International audience; In spite of numerous investigations, the molecular mechanism of general anesthetics action is still not well understood. It has been shown that the anesthetic potency is related to the ability of an anesthetic to partition into the membrane. We have investigated changes in structure, dynamics and forces of interaction in supported dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) bilayers in the presence of the general anesthetic halothane. In the present study, we measured the forces of interaction between the probe and the bilayer using an atomic force microscope. The changes in force curves as a function of anesthetic incorporation were analyzed. Force measurements were in go…
Direct Observation of Nanometer-Scale Pores of Melittin in Supported Lipid Monolayers
2015
Melittin is the most studied membrane-active peptide and archetype within a large and diverse group of pore formers. However, the molecular characteristics of melittin pores remain largely unknown. Herein, we show by atomic force microscopy (AFM) that lipid monolayers in the presence of melittin are decorated with numerous regularly shaped circular pores that can be distinguished from nonspecific monolayer defects. The specificity of these pores is reinforced through a statistical evaluation of depressions found in Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers in the presence and absence of melittin, which eventually allows characterization of the melittin-induced pores at a quantitative low-resolution leve…
Parvovirus capsid disorders cholesterol-rich membranes.
2008
In this study canine parvovirus, CPV, was found to induce disorder in DPPC:cholesterol membranes in acidic conditions. This acidicity-induced fluidizing effect is suggested to originate from the N-terminus of the viral capsid protein VP1. In accordance with the model membrane studies, a fluidizing effect was seen also in the endosomal membranes during CPV infection implying an important functional role of the fluidization in the endocytic entry of the virus.