• BMB Reports
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.54-58
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• 2000

Recent research results regarding the very long chain transmembrane ${\alpha},{\omega}-dicarboxylic$ components in the membrane of extremophilic eubacteria, such as Sarcina ventriculi, Thennotoga maritima, and Thermoanaerobacter ethanolicus have raised interesting questions concerning the physical and biochemical function on these components in the membrane. In order to understand the dynamic characteristics of these acids which reside in the bilayer membrane, 580 ps molecular dynamic simulations at 300 K were performed for two model systems. These systems were the bilayer with regular chain (C16:0 or C18:1) fatty acid methyl esters and the fatty acid bilayer containing very long chain transmembrane dicarboxylic acid methyl esters (${\alpha},{\omega}-15,16-dimethyltriacotane-dioate$ dimethyl ester; C32:0). Our analyses indicate that very long chain transmembrane dicarboxylic acids have a noticeable influence on the bilayer dynamics at a sub-nanosecond time scale. The center-ofmass mean-squared-displacement (MSD) of regular chain fatty acids adjacent to the very long chain transmembrane dicarboxylic acids decreased, the long-axis order parameter increased, and the reorientational motions of methylene groups were slowed along the hydrocarbon chains. These results indicate that the very long chain transmembrane dicarboxylic acids reduce the molecular order of the whole bilayer membrane.

• Journal of The Korean Society of Inherited Metabolic disease
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2022

Long-chain fatty acid oxidation disorders (LC-FAOD) are an autosomal recessive inherited rare disease group that result in an acute metabolic crisis and chronic energy deficiency owing to the deficiency in an enzyme that converts long-chain fatty acids into energy. LC-FAOD includes carnitine palmitoyltransferase type 1 (CPT1), carnitine-acylcarnitine translocase (CACT), carnitine palmitoyltransferase type 2 (CPT2), very long-chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (VLCAD), long-chain 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (LCHAD), and trifunctional protein (TFP) deficiencies. Common symptoms of LC-FAOD are hypoketotic hypoglycemia, cardiomyopathy, and myopathy. Depending on symptom onset, the disease can be divided as neonatal period, late infancy and early childhood, adolescence, or adult onset, but symptoms can appear at any time. The neonatal screening test (NBS) can be used to identify the characteristic plasma acylcarnitine profiles for each disease and confirmed by deficient enzyme analysis or molecular testing. Before introduction of NBS, the mortality rate of LC-FAOD was very high. With NBS implementation as routine neonatal care, the mortality rate was dramatically decreased, but severe symptoms such as rhabdomyolysis recur frequently and affect the quality of life. Triheptanoin (Dojolvi^®), the first drug for pediatric and adult patients with molecularly confirmed LC-FAOD, has recently been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2020. In this review, the diagnosis of LC-FAOD and treatment including triheptanoin are summarized.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.29 no.11
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• pp.1646-1652
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• 2016

Mammalian target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) is a central regulator of cell growth and metabolism and is sufficient to induce specific metabolic processes, including de novo lipid biosynthesis. Elongation of very-long-chain fatty acids 1 (ELOVL1) is a ubiquitously expressed gene and the product of which was thought to be associated with elongation of carbon (C) chain in fatty acids. In the present study, we examined the effects of rapamycin, a specific inhibitor of mTORC1, on ELOVL1 expression and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, C22:6 n-3) synthesis in bovine mammary epithelial cells (BMECs). We found that rapamycin decreased the relative abundance of ELOVL1 mRNA, ELOVL1 expression and the level of DHA in a time-dependent manner. These data indicate that ELOVL1 expression and DHA synthesis are regulated by mTORC1 in BMECs.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.979-983
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• 2001

Thermoanaerobacter ethanolicus is a strictly anaerobic and thermophilic bacterium whose optimum temperature ranges over $65-68^{\circ}C.$ T. ethanolicus was known to contain a bipolar very long chain fatty acyl component such as $\alpha$, $\omega-1316-dimethyloctacosanedioate$, as one of the major membrane components. However, exact physiological role of this unusual component in the membrane remains unknown. Such a very long chain fatty acyl component, $\alpha$, ${\omega}-1316-dimethyloctacosanedioate$, dimethyl ester (DME C30), was isolated, and purified from the membrane of T. ethanolicus. As a function of added concentrations of the $\alpha$, $\omega-1316-dimethyloctacosanedioate$, dimethyl ester (DME C30) or cholesterol into the standard liposomes, the acyl chain ordering effect was investigated by the steady-state anisotropy with 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene (DPH) as a fluorescent probe. Acyl chain order parameter (S) of vesicles containing DME C30 is higher comparing with phosphatidylcholine (PC) only vesicles. This result was discussed thermodynamically with the aid of the simulated annealing molecular dynamics simulations. Through the investigation of all the possible conformational changes of DME C30 or cholesterol, we showed that DME C30 is very flexible and its conformation is variable depending on the temperature comparing with cholesterol, which is rigid and restricted at overall temperature. We propose that the conformational change of DME C30, not the configurational change, may be involved in the regulation of the membrane fluidity against the changes of external temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.149-155
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• 2015

Acyl carrier protein is related with fatty acid biosynthesis in which specific enzymes are involved. Especially, acyl carrier protein (ACP) is the key component in the growing of fatty acid chain. ACP is the small, very acidic protein that covalently binds various intermediates of fatty acyl chain. Acylation of ACP is mediated by holo-acyl carrier protein synthase (ACPS), which transfers the 4'PP-moiety of CoA to the 36th residue Ser of apo ACP. Acyl carrier protein P (ACPP) is one of ACPs from Helicobacter plyori. The NMR structure of ACPP consists of four helices, which were reported previously. Here we show how acylation of ACPP can affect the overall structure of ACPP and figured out the contact surface of ACPP to acyl chain attached during expression of ACPP in E. coli. Based on the chemical shift perturbation data, the acylation of ACCP seems to affect the conformation of the long loop connecting helix I and helix II as well as the second short loop connecting helix II and helix III. The significant chemical shift change of Ile 54 upon acylation supports the contact of acyl chain and the second loop.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.23 no.12
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• pp.1778-1784
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• 2002

Novel membrane lipids containing the unusual very long chain fatty $acid{\alpha}{\omega}-1316-dimethyloctacosanedioate$, dimethyl. Ester (DME C30) was isolated and purified from thermophilic anaerobic eubacterium, Thermoanaerobacter ethanolicus. Structures of the lipids containing the bifunctional fatty acyl components were proposed by various analyses such as $^1H,\;^{13}C,\;^{31}P$ nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform infrared(FTIR) spectroscopy, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry (FAB/MS). Combined with the GC/MS, $^1H,\;and\;^{13}C$NMR data, we confirmed that the head groups of the lipids contained the glycerol and/or glucosamine molecules. $^{31}P$ NMR spectrum also showed that the lipids contained phosphate in a phosphodiester linkage. The proposed structures of these novel lipid components were the ones in which two head groups were linked by the membrane spanning fatty acyl component(DME C30)and regular chain fatty acids on glycerol moiety of each head group.

• Biomedical Science Letters
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.13-20
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• 2011

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor ${\alpha}$ ($PPAR{\alpha}$) is a nuclear transcription factor that plays a central role in lipid and lipoprotein metabolism. To investigate whether swim training improves obesity and lipid metabolism through $PPAR{\alpha}$ activation in female sham-operated (Sham) and ovariectomized (OVX) mice, we measured body weight, visceral adipose tissue mass, serum free fatty acid at 6 weeks as well as the expression of hepatic $PPAR{\alpha}$ target genes involved in fatty acid oxidation. Swim-trained mice had decreased body weight, visceral adipose tissue mass and serum free fatty acid levels compared to high fat diet fed control mice in both female Sham and OVX mice. These reductions were more prominent in OVX than in Sham mice. Swim training significantly increased hepatic mRNA levels of $PPAR{\alpha}$ target genes responsible for mitochondrial fatty acid ${\beta}$-oxidation, such as carnitine palmitoyltransgerase-1 (CPT-1), very long chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (VLCAD), and medium chain acyl-CoA dehydrogenase (MCAD) in OVX mice. However, swim trained female Sham mice did not increase hepatic mRNA levels of $PPAR{\alpha}$ target genes responsible for mitochondrial fatty acid ${\beta}$-oxidation compared to Sham control mice. These results indicate that swim training differentially regulates body weight and adipose tissue mass between OVX and Sham mice, at least in part due to differences in liver $PPAR{\alpha}$ activation.

• Journal of Nutrition and Health
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.10-20
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• 1983

In order to establish tissue lipid status in animal on feeding of various dietary fat and oils, each group of rats was fed a semisynthetic diet containing 10%(w/w) mackerel oil (MO), eel oil (EO), soybean oil (SO), rapeseed oil (RO) or beef tallow (BT) for 1, 2 and 4 weeks, After each feeding period, levels of cholesterol, triglyceride and phospholipid were measured in serum. Fatty acid ${\leftarrow}$ composition was also investigated in serum and tissue lipids. Levels of total serum cholesterol were lower but HDL-cholesterol were higher in fish oil groups, which resulted in significantly higher ratio of HDL to total cholesterol in the fish oil groups. Fish oil groups, in general, also had lower levels of serum triglyceride and phospholipid than other groups, but S0 group maintained as low phospholipid levrl as fish oil groups. Fatty acid composition of dietary fat was reflected in all the tissues investigated but with varying degrees. Very long chain fatty acids, specific components exclusively found in fish oils were most well reflected in liver and relatively well in serum, whereas linoleic acid and erucic acid of SO and RO in the diet were better shown up in heart and adipose tissue. It attracted a particular attention that major proportions of long chain monoenoic acids $(C_{22:1})$ occurring both in MO and RO were detected separately in liver and heart plus adipose tissue, the result of which strongly indicates that there is a significant difference in metabolism between isomers $(C_{22:1}\;w\;11\;and\;C_{22:1}\;w\;9,\;respectively)$. It is suggested from this study that differences in lipid status as well as in the levels of serum lipids result from uniqueness in metabolism of each different fatty acid and give rise to distinguishable change in serum lipoprotein pattern, followed by diet with different fat sources.

• Korean Journal of Exercise Nutrition
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.51-57
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• 2009

The aim of this study was to investigate gene expression related with lipid metabolism and long chain fatty acid oxidation rates in the skeletal muscle by exercise. Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into control (CON: n=7), high-intensity (HI-EX: n=7) and low-intensity exercise (LI-EX; n=7) groups. Rats in LI-Ex group were forced to run on the treadmill at the speed of 10m/min for 60 min. On the other hand, rats in the HI-Ex group were forced to run on the treadmill slope 0 at the speed of 25 m/min for 60 min. The palmitate oxidation rate of the RG was increased immediately and 1 hr after exercise in the HI-Ex group, and the HI-Ex group was higher than in the LI-Ex group in RG and WG. Expression of PPARα of the RG in HI-Ex groups was increased compared with control immediately after exercise. FAT/CD36 expression were not shown any significant effect by exercise. AMPK expression of the RG in the HI-Ex group was significently increased immediately after exercise compared with control. The change in CPT-1 expression of the RG in the HI-Ex group showed a similar pattern to that AMPK. In the summary, the gene expression of PPARα, AMPK and CPT1 that was related lipid metabolism was not significantly affected by low-intensity exercise, but effected by high-intensity exercise. In conclusion, exercise intensity and amounts might be have very important role to regulate gene expression related with metabolism.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• v.23 no.10
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• pp.1413-1421
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• 2013

The marine microalga Isochrysis sphaerica is rich in the very-long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, including eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, $C20:5{\omega}-3$) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA, $C22:6{\omega}-3$) that are important to human health. Here, we report a functional characterization of a ${\Delta}4$-fatty acid desaturase gene (FAD4) from I. sphaerica. IsFAD4 contains a 1,284 bp open reading frame encoding a 427 amino acid polypeptide. The deduced amino sequence comprises three conserved histidine motifs and a cytochrome b5 domain at its N-terminus. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that IsFad4 formed a unique Isochrysis clade distinct from the counterparts of other eukaryotes. Heterologous expression of IsFAD4 in Pichia pastoris showed that IsFad4 was able to desaturate docosapentaenoic acid (DPA) to form DHA, and the rate of converting DPA to DHA was 79.8%. These results throw light on the potential industrial production of specific polyunsaturated fatty acids through IsFAD4 transgenic yeast or oil crops.