Electron microscopic visualization of fatty acids in tissues

Long-chain fatty acids are amphipathic molecules with important structural and metabolic functions in tissues. Fatty acids are derived from triacylglycerol-rich particles in capillaries (chylomicrons and very-low-density lipoproteins) and from triacylglycerol stored in cells (lipid droplets) by the hydrolytic activity of tissue lipases. The identification and localization of fatty acids in tissues has been considered difficult to obtain by using conventional ultrastructural techniques. However, structural findings from our studies on fatty acid transport in tissue became interpretable due to the use of many overlapping techniques. We present here these ultrastructural techniques developed to study fatty acids in tissues and review data which demonstrate lipase activity and fatty acid production from triacylglycerol in aldehyde-fixed tissue. Accumulations of fatty acid in tissue are present as lamellar structures with periodicity of 40-50 A in sections of resin-embedded tissue and as hydrated myelin figures in freeze fracture replicas of unfixed and fixed tissue. Finally, a new method, using the ionization properties of fatty acids combined with freeze fracture, locates these amphipathic molecules to leaflets of membrane bilayers.