Why are electrophilic fatty acids relevant in biology? Multiple transcriptional regulation events and nuclear lipid receptors such as PPARγ are potently modulated by these species, resulting in predominantly anti-inflammatory and beneficial gene expression and metabolic responses (3). One can envision that the redox-dependent generation of electrophilic lipid products thus links gene expression to the metabolic and inflammatory status of tissues.

References

1. Groeger A. L., Cipollina, C., Cole, M. P., Woodcock, S. R., Bonacci, G., Rudolph, T. K., et al. Cyclooxygenase-2 generates anti-inflammatory mediators from omega-3 fatty acids. (2010) Nat. Chem. Biol. 6, 433 – 41.
2. Schopfer, F. J., Batthyany, C., Baker, P. R., Bonacci, G., Cole, M. P., Rudolph, V., et al. Detection and quantification of protein adduction by electrophilic fatty acids: mitochondrial generation of fatty acid nitroalkene derivatives. (2009) Free Radic. Biol. Med. 46, 1250 – 9.
3. Rudolph, T. K., Freeman, B. A. Transduction of redox signaling by electrophile-protein reactions. (2009) Science Signaling. 2.

Steven R. Woodcock (srw22@pitt.edu) is an instructor, and Bruce A. Freeman (freerad@pitt.edu) is the Irwin Fridovich professor and chair of pharmacology and chemical biology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.