Metabolism
on-line - the virtual tutorial room
copyright © 2008 - 2015 David A Bender
Not an ounce of fat on her - and extreme emaciation in patient with advanced cancer
Objectives
By the end of this exercise you should be able to:
Explain the origin of the glycerol moiety of triacylglycerols.
Explain why fatty acids are bound to serum albumin in the bloodstream and esterified with either carnitine or CoA inside cells, and describe how fatty acids are activated for triacylglycerol synthesis.
Describe the pathway of triacylglycerol from glycerol 3-phosphate and fatty acyl CoA.
Explain why the fatty acid at carbon-2 of a triacylglycerol is commonly a polyunsaturated fatty acid.
Explain why a patient with congenital generalised lipodystrophy has fasting hypertriglyceridaemia, an enlarged liver and a muscular appearance.
Explain how activation of hormone sensitive lipase in adipose tissue leads to hypermetabolism, emaciation and wasting in patients with advanced cancer.