Introduction

One of the major issues in human health and disease is to find the basic physiology of various cellular processes and understand the root cause(s) of various diseases. It is true that various cellular processes are complex. It is estimated that in a single cell at any given point in time, a minimum of 1 trillion reactions or processes are occurring simultaneously. If this is true, it is almost mind-boggling to imagine how many processes or reactions are occurring in the whole body at a single point in time. Because it is nearly impossible to grasp all cellular or enzymatic reactions at once, researchers study individual reactions or processes in a specific cell or tissue at a given time, gradually piecing together the body's complex functions. Such an understanding is expected to, hopefully, help us to understand the most crucial cellular processes and thus try to decipher the pathological states of various diseases. Such an understanding of the various physiological processes and cellular reactions is expected to lead to the development of better diagnostic, therapeutic, and prognostic markers for various diseases. One such crucial endogenous chemical that follows a complex metabolic process with its involvement in various physiological and pathological processes is arachidonic acid (AA). In this section, a brief introduction to AA and its metabolism is provided.