INFLAMMATORY LIPIDS

There are two families of lipids that cause inflammation, and members of these families contribute to proinflammatory actions, the families in question are derived from a substance called arachidonic acid and the pathways that are formed are called the cycloxygenase and lipoxygenase pathway.

Now, a little bit of information about arachidonic acid, it is a 20 carbon polyunsaturated fatty acid that is derived from dietary sources or by conversion from linoleic acid. Interesting that this has an oil base.

Members of both these families enhance platelet aggregation(this means the platelets clump), platelets play a role in clotting and I did touch on this in early posts, you need platelets they heal wounds but when they are in clumps, in the body, this is not normal.

Members of both these families of lipids have been found in inflammatory fluids and so the case for aspirin, aspirin role is to reduce inflamation and by doing so, negates the effect of the cyclooxygenase pathway and a acute inflamatory response.

These two families set off a cascade of other mediators called prostaglandins and leukotrines and in my next post I will go into a short explanation of there lipid role.

Stay Healthy