Essential fatty acids and related molecular and cellular mechanisms in multiple sclerosis: new looks at old concepts

Essential polyunsaturated fatty acids, their metabolism and their effects represent a ubiquitous system important for cellular membrane stability, for immunological and inflammatory regulations, for inter- and intracellular signalling. There are complex links to other regulatory and effector mechanisms - to the reactive oxygen species, nitric oxide and peroxynitrite anion, to eicosanoids and related compounds. The relation of polyunsaturated acids to multiple sclerosis was extensively discussed some time ago. Recently, a number of data placing these concepts in a new light have emerged, which are reviewed in the present article. The recent knowledge indicates that this topic deserves further attention in both the basic and the clinical research of multiple sclerosis.