Metabolic Relation between Phosphatidic Acids, CDP-Diglycerides, and Phosphoinositides

Abstract

The metabolic turnover of phosphoinositides in numerous tissues has received a great deal of attention with particular interest being focused on the polar head groups of the lipids. What has received comparatively little attention, however, is the fatty acid turnover and the mechanisms for regulation of the molecular species of these lipids. In a number of tissues arachidonic acid is the predominant unsaturated fatty acid of each of the inositides and in rat brain this is a unique feature of the inositides. Not only is arachidonate an important fatty acid, but it seems of importance for the cell to position arachidonate in position — 2 of the phosphoinositide molecule.