Oxylipid Signaling
Oxylipid Signaling
Oxylipids are a diverse group of signaling molecules derived from fatty acids. The most well known of these are the products of the ω6 fatty acid arachidonic acid (ARA; 20:4n6); however, other fatty acids including linoleic acid (LA; 18:2n6), dihommo-ϒ-linolenic acid (DGLA; 20:3n6), and the ω3 fatty acids alpha-linolenic acid (ALA; 18:3n3), eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA; 20:5n3), and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA; 22:6n3) are all precursors for oxylipids. Oxylipids are involved in a number of inflammatory diseases including heart disease, neural degeneration, autoimmune diseases such as arthritis, and cancer. There are pro-inflammatory, pro-coagulant, immune-stimulatory oxylipids which are produced, for example, in response to injury to a vessel wall in order to initiate repair and immune cell recruitment. There are also anti-proliferative, anti-inflammatory, anti-coagulant oxylipids which are produced to signal the cessation of such responses. The interplay of the various oxylipid species produced by the suite of enzymes that make up the oxylipid cascades act in concert with each other to produce nuanced responses to specific events. This project focuses on the comprehensive analysis of all of the oxylipids simultaneously, a metabolomic approach, in order to understand the specific mechanisms involved in various inflammatory disease states.
