Acyl migration during deacylation of phospholipids rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA): an enzymatic approach for evidence and study

Non-enzymatic acyl migration could be counter-productive for the preparation of structured phospholipids with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) at a designated position. Therefore enzymatic approaches have been developed to investigate acyl migration. First, acyl migration from sn-2 to sn-1 position has been set into relief by a three step enzymatic method using a typo-selective lipase, a phospholipase A2 and a non-selective lipase. The effect of reaction temperature on acyl migration from sn-2 to sn-1 was monitored: lowering the reaction temperature from 40 to 30°C allowed a reduction of DHA migration rate of 40%. Secondly, acyl migration from sn-1 to sn-2 position was negligible. This last result was obtained through the study of structured phosphatidylcholine selective deacylation using a phospholipase A2.