Metabolism of trans and conjugated fatty acidsTrans fatty acids (FA) enter all the metabolic pathways of bioconversion, oxidation and lipid storage and are incorporated into all tissues. They also interfere with the polyunsaturated FA metabolic pathways. Among trans FA, major attention is paid to elaidic and vaccenic acids. The latter is bioconverted into rumenic acid, a conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) isomer, through the D9 desaturase pathway. Considering CLA isomers, they are also bioconverted by desaturases and the elongation pathway, but the significance of this conversion is not fully understood. This review considers these different aspects, with particular attention to human data. Incorporation and bioconversion as well as oxidative metabolism of trans FA (monoenes, polyenes and conjugated fatty acids) are rapidly overviewed. Furthermore, their impact on the metabolism of other FA is also considered.
Keywords
Incorporation of trans FA into tissues 2.1 Trans 18:1 isomersOhlrogge et al.[1] extensively studied the occurrence of trans 18:1 FA in tissues after death of nine subjects. These trans FA were reported in all the lipid classes from liver, heart, red blood cells and plasma. Later, Rocquelin et al.[2] reported that human cardiac biopsies contained 0.7-0.8% of total FA as trans 18:1. Elaidic acid was suggested as being the major one in phosphatidylcholine, but the relevance has to be confirmed, considering the GC method available.Generally, analyses are performed on tissues obtained from less invasive experiments (blood samples, adipose tissue, milk). For example, data from the EURAMIC study, which was carried out in the 1990s, showed that trans 18:1 isomers in adipose tissue ranged from 0.4 to 2.4% of total FA [3,4]. These values are similar to those reported by Boue et al. [5] in adipose tissue of French women, which contained about 2% of trans 18:1 isomers. Generally, it is demonstrated that the trans FA content in adipose tissue is related to the dietary intake [6]. However, a recent study failed to demonstrate such a correlation [7]. In human milk, trans 18:1 isomers have been reported for several years. In the early report of Picciano and Perkins [8], trans 18:1 was reported to represent 2-4% of total FA. More recently, it has been reported that samples from US women contain 5.1 6 2.0% 18:1 trans isomers (range 1.5-11.6%), with D10t being the most abundant isomer [9]. In French samples, the mean content in 1995 was lower (1.9% of total FA), with vaccenic acid being the major isomer [10]. Such differences illustrate that the trans FA sources are different according to the countries.
Trans polyunsaturated FA
Review ArticleEur. J. Lipid Sci. Technol. 109 (2007) 930-934 TFAs and CLA metabolism 931 of n-3 trans isomers is lower than that of trans 18:1, as the intake is lower (,200 mg/day).