| Institution: | 1. INSERM, Neurocentre Magendie, Physiopathologie de la Plasticité Neuronale, U1215, F-33000 Bordeaux, France;2. University of Bordeaux, Neurocentre Magendie, Physiopathologie de la Plasticité Neuronale, U1215, F-33000 Bordeaux, France;3. INRA, Nutrition et Neurobiologie Intégrée, UMR 1286, F-33076 Bordeaux, France;4. University of Bordeaux, Nutrition et Neurobiologie Intégrée, UMR 1286, F-33076 Bordeaux, France;1. Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Biophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;2. Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;3. Institute for Molecular Virology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;4. Center for Genome Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;5. Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;1. Department of Nutritional Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, M5S 3E2, Canada;2. Lipid Biology, Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland |
| Abstract: | Membrane lipids are essential for life; however, research on how cells regulate cell lipid composition has been falling behind for quite some time. One reason was the difficulty in establishing analytical methods able to cope with the cell lipid repertoire. Development of a diversity of mass spectrometry-based technologies, including imaging mass spectrometry, has helped to demonstrate beyond doubt that the cell lipidome is not only greatly cell type dependent but also highly sensitive to any pathophysiological alteration such as differentiation or tumorigenesis. Interestingly, the current popularization of metabolomic studies among numerous disciplines has led many researchers to rediscover lipids. Hence, it is important to underscore the peculiarities of these metabolites and their metabolism, which are both radically different from protein and nucleic acid metabolism. Once differences in lipid composition have been established, researchers face a rather complex scenario, to investigate the signaling pathways and molecular mechanisms accounting for their results. Thus, a detail often overlooked, but of crucial relevance, is the complex networks of enzymes involved in controlling the level of each one of the lipid species present in the cell. In most cases, these enzymes are redundant and promiscuous, complicating any study on lipid metabolism, since the modification of one particular lipid enzyme impacts simultaneously on many species. Altogether, this review aims to describe the difficulties in delving into the regulatory mechanisms tailoring the lipidome at the activity, genetic, and epigenetic level, while conveying the numerous, stimulating, and sometimes unexpected research opportunities afforded by this type of studies. |
