MSGID: 1:317/3 642ba7ee   
   PID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
   TID: hpt/lnx 1.9.0-cur 2019-01-08   
    Cells refine palm fat into olive oil    
    Study provides the first precise insight into important remodeling   
   processes in adipose tissue    
      
     Date:   
         April 3, 2023   
     Source:   
         University of Bonn   
     Summary:   
         For more than 50 years, it has been suspected that fat cells   
         constantly remodel the lipids they store. Researchers have now   
         demonstrated this process directly for the first time using culture   
         cells. Among other things, the study shows that the cells quickly   
         eliminate harmful fatty acids. They refine others into molecules   
         that can be used more effectively. In the long term, this turns   
         the components of palm fat into the building blocks of high-quality   
         olive oil, for example.   
      
      
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   FULL STORY   
   ==========================================================================   
   Fat molecules serve as energy storage for fat cells. They consist   
   of three fatty acids attached to a backbone of glycerol. They are   
   therefore also called triglycerides. It has long been suspected that   
   molecules do not remain unchanged during their storage period. Instead,   
   they are regularly broken down and reassembled -- a process called   
   "triglyceride cycling." But is this assumption even true, and if so:   
   What would that be good for? "Until now, there has been no real answer   
   to these questions," explains Prof. Dr. Christoph Thiele of the LIMES   
   Institute at the University of Bonn. "It's true that there has been   
   indirect evidence of this permanent reconstruction for the past 50   
   years. However, direct evidence of this has so far been lacking."   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   The problem: To prove that triglycerides are broken down, and fatty   
   acids modified and reincorporated into new molecules, one would need to   
   track their transformation as they travel through the body. Yet there   
   are thousands of different forms of triglycerides in each cell. Keeping   
   track of individual fatty acids is therefore extremely difficult.   
      
   Label makes fatty acids unmistakable "However, we have developed a   
   method that allows us to attach a special label to fatty acids, making   
   them unmistakable," says Thiele. His research group labeled various   
   fatty acids in this way and added them in a nutrient medium to mouse   
   fat cells. The mouse cells then incorporated the labeled molecules   
   into triglycerides. "We were able to show that these triglycerides do   
   not remain unchanged, but are continuously degraded and remodeled: Each   
   fatty acid is split off about twice a day and reattached to another fat   
   molecule," the researcher explains.   
      
   But why is that? After all, this conversion costs energy, which is   
   released as waste heat -- what does the cell get out of it? Until now, it   
   was thought that the cell needed this process to balance energy storage   
   and supply. Or perhaps it is simply a way for the body to generate   
   heat. "Our results now point to a completely different explanation,"   
   Thiele explains. "It's possible that in the course of this process,   
   the fats are converted to what the body needs." Poorly utilizable fatty   
   acids would consequently be refined into higher-quality variants and   
   stored in this form until they are needed.   
      
   Fatty acids consist largely of carbon atoms, which hang one behind the   
   other like the carriages of a train. Their length can be very different:   
   Some consist of only ten carbon atoms, others of 16 or even more. In   
   their study, the researchers produced three different fatty acids and   
   labeled them. One of them was eleven, the second 16 and the third 18   
   carbon atoms long. "These chain lengths are typically found in food as   
   well," Thiele explains.   
      
   Short fatty acids are eliminated, long ones "improved" Labeling   
   allowed the researchers to track exactly what happens to the fatty   
   acids of different lengths in the cell. This showed that the fatty   
   acids consisting of eleven carbon atoms were initially incorporated into   
   triglycerides. After a short time, however, they were split off again and   
   channeled out of the cell. After two days, they were no longer detectable.   
      
   "Such shorter fatty acids are poorly usable by cells and can even damage   
   them," says Thiele, who is also a member of the Cluster of Excellence   
   ImmunoSensation2. "Therefore, they are disposed of quickly."  In contrast,   
   the 16- and 18-atom fatty acids remained in the cell, although not   
   in their original fat molecules. They were also gradually chemically   
   modified, for example by additional carbon atoms being inserted. In the   
   original fatty acids, the carbon atoms were moreover linked with single   
   bonds -- roughly like a human chain in which neighbors join hands. Over   
   time, this sometimes developed into double bonds -- as if revelers at   
   a party were doing a conga.   
      
   The fatty acids that are formed in this process are called   
   unsaturated. They are better utilizable for the body.   
      
   "Overall, in this way the cells produce fatty acids that are more   
   beneficial to the organism than those that we had originally supplied   
   with the nutrient solution," Thiele emphasizes. In the long term, this   
   results for instance in the formation of oleic acid, a component of   
   high-quality olive oil, from palmitate, such as that contained in palm   
   fat. However, the cell cannot change the fatty acids as long as they are   
   inside the fat molecule. They must first be split off, then modified,   
   and finally tacked back on. Thiele: "Without triglyceride cycling,   
   there is also no fatty acid modification."  Adipose tissue can therefore   
   improve triglycerides. If we eat and store food with unfavorable fatty   
   acids, they do not have to be released in that state again when we are   
   hungry. What we get back contains fewer "short" fatty acids, more oleic   
   acid (instead of palmitate) and more of the important arachidonic acid   
   (instead of linoleic acid). "Nevertheless, we should take care in our diet   
   to consume high-quality dietary fats as much as possible," the researcher   
   stresses. Because the refinement never works 100 percent. In addition,   
   some of the fatty acids are not stored but used directly in the body. In   
   the next step, the researchers now want to test whether the same processes   
   occur in human adipose tissue as in individual mouse fat cells in the   
   test tube. They also want to find out which enzymes make cycling work.   
      
       * RELATED_TOPICS   
             o Health_&_Medicine   
                   # Dietary_Supplements_and_Minerals # Cholesterol #   
                   Triglycerides # Obesity   
             o Plants_&_Animals   
                   # Genetics # Molecular_Biology # Cell_Biology # Food   
       * RELATED_TERMS   
             o Olive_oil o Saturated_fat o Lipid o Unsaturated_fat o   
             DNA_repair o Mediterranean_diet o Omega-3_fatty_acid o   
             Bone_marrow   
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Bonn. Note: Content   
   may be edited for style and length.   
      
      
   ==========================================================================   
   Journal Reference:   
      1. Klaus Wunderling, Jelena Zurkovic, Fabian Zink, Lars Kuerschner,   
         Christoph Thiele. Triglyceride cycling enables modification   
         of stored fatty acids. Nature Metabolism, 2023; DOI:   
         10.1038/s42255-023-00769-z   
   ==========================================================================   
      
   Link to news story:   
   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230403133457.htm   
      
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