Brain lipids importance, Lecture notes of Biochemistry

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Chemistry of major

brain lipids

Chemically, lipids can be defined as compounds

containing long-chain fatty acids and their

derivatives or linked isoprenoid units.

Fatty acids in lipids are either esterified to the

trihydroxy alcohol glycerol or are present as amides

of sphingosine, a long-chain dihydroxyamine.

Isoprenoids are made up of branched-chain units

and include sterols, primarily cholesterol

Lipids

Lipids have multiple functions in brain

Lipids in brain participate in both the function and the

structure of neural membranes

• Formation of biomembranes -

Cholesterol and sphingolipids play a central role

in formation of lipid rafts, which function in

protein trafficking and signaling at the cell

surface

• lipid-mediated signal transduction - Polyphosphoinositides and phosphatidylcholine

have important functions in signal transduction

across biological membranes

Primary functions

Other functions

derivatives of lipids, for example the utilization of

arachidonic acid to form the bioactive eicosanoids

and the utilization of sterols to form neurosteroids

covalent modification of proteins by fatty acids and

by isoprenoids has an integral role in anchoring and

organizing proteins within biomembranes