Lipidomics update - November 2009

Lipid of the month

Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA)
One of the most active of the bioactive phospholipids, LPA is soluble in both cell membranes and in aqueous fluid, and acts in many cell signaling pathways.

Research highlights

• Brain lipids: Male mice show their age

  Comparing brain phospholipid profiles in mice reveals substantial age-related differences in males, but not females, which may contribute to the etiology of Parkinson's disease.

• Lipid signaling: LPA's ways of actin

  Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) controls actin dynamics indirectly, through cell surface receptor-mediated signaling, and directly, by binding and inhibiting villin.

• Grape seed extract: How to be fat and healthy?

  Proanthocyanidins from grape seeds reduce the atherogenic risk associated with obesity, by repressing genes involved in the secretion of very low density lipoprotein.

• Neurodegenerative disorders: A biomarker and a target for progressive MS

  An oxysterol, 15-α-hydroxicholestene, is a stage-specific biomarker of secondary progressive multiple sclerosis.

Events calendar

• ASBMB Annual meeting 2010: Lipid Interactions in Physiology and Disease

  24 - 28 April 2010

• 19th International Symposium on Plant Lipids

  12 - 16 July, 2010

more events