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Saturated Fatty Acids Induce Ceramide-associated Macrophage Cell Death
Published on: October 31, 2017
Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acid differentially impact cardiolipin remodeling in activated macrophage
Wan-Hsin Chang1, Hsiu-Chi Ting1, Wei-Wei Chen1
1Department of Chemistry, Tunghai University, Taichung, No.1727, Sec4, Taiwan Boulevard, Xitun District, Taichung, 40704, Taiwan, Republic of China.
Background:
The macrophage plays an important role in innate immunity to induce immune responses. Lipid replacement therapy has been shown to change the lipid compositions of mitochondria and potentially becomes an alternative to reduce the inflammatory response.
Methods:
We examined the effects of omega-6 arachidonic acid (AA), omega-3 eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), and omega-3 docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) supplementation on the activated the macrophage cell line RAW264.7 via KdO2-lipid A (KLA). The mitochondrial cardiolipin (CL) and monolysocardiolipin (MLCL) were analyzed by LC-MS.
Results:
After macrophage activation by KLA, CL shifted to saturated species, but did not affect the quantity of CL. Inhibition of delta 6 desaturase also resulted in the same trend of CL species shift. We further examined the changes in CL and MLCL species induced by polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation during inflammation. After supplementation of AA, EPA and DHA, the MLCL/CL ratio increased significantly in all treatments. The percentages of the long-chain species highly elevated and those of short-chain species reduced in both CL and MLCL.
Conclusions:
Comparisons of AA, EPA and DHA supplementation revealed that the 20-carbon EPA (20:5) and AA (20:4) triggered higher incorporation and CL remodeling efficiency than 22-carbon DHA (22:6). EPA supplementation not only efficiently extended the chain length of CL but also increased the unsaturation of CL.
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