Oxylipin

Oxylipins constitute a family of oxygenated natural products which are formed from fatty acids by pathways involving at least one step of dioxygen-dependent oxidation.

The processes include inflamation, blood flow, energy metabolism, cellular life, cell signaling, or muscle contractions.

Monooxygenases involved in oxylipin biosynthesis are members of the cytochrome P450 superfamily and can oxidize double bonds with epoxide formation or saturated carbons forming alcohols.

Nature has evolved numerous enzymes which metabolize oxylipins into secondary products, many of which possess strong biological activity.

Oxylipins in animals, referred to as eicosanoids (Greek icosa; twenty) because of their formation from twenty-carbon essential fatty acids, have potent and often opposing effects on e.g. smooth muscle (vasculature, myometrium) and blood platelets.

Plant oxylipins are mainly involved in control of ontogenesis, reproductive processes and in the resistance to various microbial pathogens and other pests.

Oxylipins most often act in an autocrine or paracrine manner, notably in targeting peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) to modify adipocyte formation and function.