. Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 October 01. Gu et al. Page 5 Dietary PUFAs can alter the structure of glycerophospholipids in cell membranes by switching fatty acids. The sn-1 position on the glycerol backbone of glycerophospholipids in mammals is mainly committed to a saturated fatty acid such as stearic acid, while the sn-2 position is devoted to an n-6 PUFA, such as AA. Providing animals or cultured cells with n-3 PUFAs can substitute n-6 with n-3 fatty acids at the sn-2 position of glycerophospholipids. The n-6 to n-3 fatty acid switch can be considered as a diet-driven sn-2 fatty acid moiety change. Dietary PUFAs not only change the sn-2 fatty acid moiety, but can also influence the fatty acid composition of glycerophospholipids in cell membranes. We have found that approximately 25% of input fatty acids conjugated with albumin is incorporated into glycerophospholipids in Cobicistat site prostate cancer cells within 48 hours. 
This show that dietary PUFAs can influence the fatty acid composition of glycerophospholipids in cell membranes. A common fate of unsaturated lipids released from the membrane is oxidation. n-6 PUFA AA is released from phospholipids by phospholipase A2, an enzyme that can be activated by inflammation. The free AA is then processed through a series of enzymatic reaction by several enzymes belonging to the COX and LOX families as well as cytochrome P450, to generate prostaglandins, thromboxanes, leukotrienes, hydroxyeicosatetraenoic and epoxyeicosatrienoic acid, respectively. These eicosanoids are potent mediators of inflammation. Although the metabolism of n-3 PUFAs is not yet fully understood, studies of n-3 PUFAderived lipid mediators have been initiated a long time ago. Bang et al. first associated the diet rich in fish of Greenland Eskimos with their lower mortality rate from coronary heart disease and lower prevalence of inflammation-related diseases, such as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, asthma, and other autoimmune diseases. With a modern lipidomics approach, Serhan and colleagues discovered and named the EPAderived resolvins of E series, DHA derived resolvins of D series, and protectin from resolving exudates of mice fed with n-3 PUFAs or treated with aspirin. The E series resolvins are endogenously expressed lipid mediators with anti-inflammatory and pro-resolving functions. With their antiinflammatory capacity, RvE1 and RvE2 have shown their protective character in various animal models of disease. For example, RvE1 acted as a protector to resolve inflammation of periodontal disease trigged by bacterial infection, and to prevent oxygen-induced retinal angiogenesis. The D series resolvins, another family of endogenously expressed lipid mediators, are also heavily involved in the resolution of inflammation. Not only functioning as precursors to eicosanoids and other metabolites, n-3 PUFAs can also exert their function by directly inhibiting the biosynthesis of n-6 series eicosanoids. As mentioned earlier, when n-3 PUFAs are integrated into membrane phospholipids, they take the place of AA at the sn-2 position on the glycerophospholipid backbone and thereby reduce the amount of AA available for cell metabolism. Since n-3 and n-6 PUFAs are metabolized by the same PubMed ID:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1985460 enzymes, such as desaturases, elongases, COXs and LOXs, n-3 PUFAs compete with n-6 PUFAs for these enzymes and inhibit biosynthesis of n-6 series eicosanoid. Several groups reported that n-3 PUFAs counter-regulate AA-der