A Comprehensive Classification System for Lipids

Abstract

Lipids are produced, transported, and recognized by the concerted actions of numerous enzymes, binding proteins, and receptors. A comprehensive analysis of lipid molecules, "lipidomics," in the context of genomics and proteomics is crucial to understanding cellular physiology and pathology; consequently, lipid biology has become a major research target of the postgenomic revolution and systems biology. To facilitate international communication about lipids, a comprehensive classification of lipids with a common platform that is compatible with informatics requirements has been developed to deal with the massive amounts of data that will be generated by our lipid community. As an initial step in this development, we divide lipids into eight categories (fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, sterol lipids, prenol lipids, saccharolipids, and polyketides) containing distinct classes and subclasses of molecules, The goal of collecting data on lipids using a "systems biology" approach to lipidomics requires the development of a comprehensive classification, nomenclature, and chemical representation system to accommodate the myriad lipids that exist in nature. Lipids have been loosely defined as biological substances that are generally hydrophobic in nature and in many cases soluble in organic solvents (1). These chemical properties cover a broad range of mole-

Biological Function of the Cellular Lipid BMP—BMP as a Key Activator for Cholesterol Sorting and Membrane Digestion

“…1a). Since the old terminology is misleading, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemists and the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (IUPAC-IUBMB) Commission on Biochemical Nomenclature decided that only the term BMP will be used [7]. Furthermore, we would like to reiterate that the term lyso-bis-phosphatidic acid (LBPA) should not be used as an alternative, since it is incorrect and misleading.…”

Identification of free fatty acids profiling of type 2 diabetes mellitus and exploring possible biomarkers by GC–MS coupled with chemometrics

“…As is known, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a typical lipid metabolism disorder disease (Stumvoll et al 2005). Free fatty acids, an important category of lipids (Fahy et al 2005), are known as important biomedical indicators of the abnormal lipid metabolism in diabetes mellitus (Bohov et al 1997;Horrobin 1997;Jones et al 1986;Taylor et al 1987). Especially, some studies suggested that the composition and concentration of plasma FFAs influenced insulin sensitivity and mediated impaired glucose tolerance (Bergman and Ader 2000;Vessby et al 1994).…”

Targeted metabolomics and mass spectrometry

“…However, there are many different lipid types, and recent efforts by the lipid community to classify lipid species have resulted in a list of eight distinct lipid classes, that is, fatty acyls, glycerolipids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids, sterol lipids, prenol lipids, saccharolipids, and polyketides (Fig. 5;Fahy et al, 2005Fahy et al, , 2009. At the same time as this new classification scheme was developed, a group of lipid scientists in the USA established the Lipid Maps Consortium with the aim of identifying and quantifying all the lipids in a mammalian cell and monitoring their response to perturbation (http://www.lipidmaps.org/).…”