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Arachidonic acid metabolism in liver glucose and lipid homeostasis

LI Sha¹, SU Wen², ZHANG Xiao-Yan³, GUAN You-Fei^4,*

¹Medical College, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan 056038, China；²Health Science Center, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China；³Health Science Center, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China；⁴Advanced Institute of Medical Science, Dalian Medical University, Dalian 116044, China

Abstract

Arachidonic acid (AA) is an ω-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid, which mainly exists in the cell membrane in the form of phospholipid. Three major enzymatic pathways including the cyclooxygenase (COX), lipoxygenase (LOX) and cytochrome P450 monooxygenase (CYP450) pathways are involved in AA metabolism leading to the generation of a variety of lipid mediators such as prostaglandins, leukotrienes, hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acids (HETEs) and epoxyeicoastrienoic acids (EETs). These bioactive AA metabolites play an important role in the regulation of many physiological processes including the maintenance of liver glucose and lipid homeostasis. As the central metabolic organ, the liver is essential in metabolism of carbohydrates, lipids and proteins, and its dysfunction is associated with the pathogenesis of many metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia and non- alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). This article aims to provide an overview of the enzymatic pathways of AA and discuss the role of AA-derived lipid mediators in the regulation of hepatic glucose and lipid metabolism and their associations with the pathogenesis of major metabolic disorders.

Key words: arachidonic acid; liver; metabolism; lipid mediator; metabolic diseases

Received: 2021-02-25　　Accepted: 2021-04-08

Corresponding author: 管又飞　　E-mail: guanyf@dmu.edu.cn

DOI: 10.13294/j.aps.2021.0052

Citing This Article：

LI Sha, SU Wen, ZHANG Xiao-Yan, GUAN You-Fei. Arachidonic acid metabolism in liver glucose and lipid homeostasis. Acta Physiol Sin 2021; 73 (4): 657-664 (in Chinese with English abstract).