Welcome to the PharmaOmega glossary page. Here you will find definitions to key terms
that may be related to Omega-3 and conditions associated with its deficiency.
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
A
Acyltransferases
: The enzymes responsible for assembling pholipids.
Alpha Linolenic Acid (ALA)
: An eighteen-carbon fatty acid that is the parent of the essential omega-3 family of fats; plants use it in photosynthesis and in the formation of cell messengers. It is therefore found mostly in green leaves and is the most abundunt fat on the planet. only plants can turn linoleic acid into alpha linoleic acid (by adding a double bond), but most animals, including humans, can turn alpha linoleic acid into the longer and more desaturated eicosapentaenoic acid and DHA. See
linoleic acid.
Antioxidants
: Naturally occuring compounds that neutralize free radicals (see below) before they can cause cell damage..
Arachidonic Acid (abbreviated AA, or sometimes ARA)
: A twenty-carbon omega-6 fatty acid, found
throughout the body, that is the source of the most potent and inflammatory eicosanoids. Most animals, including humans, can make AA from linoleic acid. it can also be consumed ready-made, foods particularly rich in AA are meats and other animal products.
Arrhythmia
: A disturbance in the coordinated rhythmic contraction of the heart muscle.
B
C
Canola Oil
: A vegetable oil developed in Canada during the late 1960s and early 1970s and introduced into the United States in 1985. Canola oil is extracted from a hybrid form of rapeseed that is very low in erucic acid, a twenty-two-carbon monounsaturated fatty acid that had been found to cause fatty deposit n the hearts of test animals. Most rapeseed contains more than 30 percent erucic acid, but the kind used to make canola oil has only 0.3 to 1.2 percent. Canola oil gets its name from a melding of Canada and oil; it is also called LEAR (low erucic acid rapeseed) oil. It is know for having a significant alpha linolenic acid but none of these attributes is fixed; and, as is also true of soy and other oil seeds, new varieties of canola are being developed all the time.
Chloroplasts
: Specialized structures within plant cells that contain stacks and stacks of membranes in which the many proteins involved in photosynthesis are embedded. The membrane, called tge thylacoid membrane, is the most abundant thing on the planet. Thus its major electromicrograph of one of the many chloroplasts in a cell from the leaf of a tobacco plant (Nicotiana tobacum), courtesy of Richard McAvoy and Mariya Khadakovskaya.
Cis Conformation
: A double bond in which the two hydrogens are on the same side, thus forming a kink or bend in the molecule that dramatically lowers its melting point (the temperature at which it goes from being a solid to a liquid). In most naturally occuring fats, all the double bonds are in the cis conformation.
D
Desaturases
: Enzymes that introduce double bonds into specific sites on fatty acids. only plants have the delta-12 and the delta-15 desaturases that can turn oleic acid into linoleic acid and linoleic acid into alpha linoleic acid (by adding double bonds before the twelfth and fifteenth carbons-the sixth and the third, if you count backward). Animals (and some plants) have the delta-5, delta-6, and delta-9 desaturateses.
Desaturation
: The removal of hydrogen atoms to create a double bond between two carbons. See
unsaturated bonds.
Docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA)
: A twenty-two-carbon omega-3 fatty acid that is found in the largest amounts in a body's most active tissues: the brain, eyes, and heart. With twenty-two carbons and six double bond, DHA is the longest, most unsaturated fatty acid in most living things. Most animals, including humans, can make DHA from alpha linoleic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid, or it can be consumed already-made. Foods that are rich in DHA include brains and fish, fish oils, and other seafoods, including some seaweeds.
Double Bond
: A chemical bond in which two pairs (rather than a single pair) of electrons are shared between two atoms. When double bonds form between carbon atoms, those carbons do not share as many electrons with hydrogen atoms and the bond is said to be unsaturated.
E
Eicosanoids
: A group of cell messengers that includes all the prostaglandins, thromboxanes, and leukotrienes. Eicosanoids are formed from twenty-carbon highly unsaturated fatty acids (HUFAs) by either the cyclooxygenase (COX) or lipoxygenase function, allergic response, reproduction, uterine muscle contraction, gastric secretion, and other important processes.
Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA)
: A twenty-carbon omega-3 fatty acid that is the source of the least inflammatory eicosanoids. Most animals, including humans, can make EPA from alpha linoleic acid, or it can be consumed already-made. Foods rich in EPA include fish, fish oils, and other seafoods.
Elongases
: Enzymes that elongate fatty acids. Because they always add two carbons at a time, fatty acids always have an even number of carbons..
Essential Fatty Acids
: The fatty acids that animals cannot make themselves but require for health, including alpha linolenic acid and linoleic acid. AA, EPA, and DHA are also essential for health; but since animals can make them out of alpha linoleic acid and linoleic acid, these longer fatty acids are sometimes called conditionally essential.
F
Fats
: A form of fatty acids used in storage and transport. Insoluble in water, they are made by combining three fatty acids and one molecule of glycerol. Fats can be either solids or liquids, depending on whether the fatty acids they are made from are mostly saturated or unsaturated. The fats in butter, lard, and coconut oil have many saturated fatty acids. The fats in vegetable and fish oil have many unsaturated fatty acids. See
triglycerides.
Fatty Acid
: A string of carbons and hydrogens attached to a weak carboxylic acid. The acidic part of a fatty acid is lost when it combines with glycerol and two other fatty acids to make a triglyceride or molecule fat. The fatty acids in living tissues are generally sixteen to twenty-two carbons long and have zero to six double bonds. Palmitic acid, an important component of palm oil and animal fats, is sixteen carbons long and fully saturated. Stearic, oleic, linoleic, and alpha linolenic acid are all eighteen carbons long and have zero, one, two, and three double bonds, respectevely. Oleic acid, the main fatty acid in olive oil, is also the most abundant fat in animal tissues (and, therefore, the world), and DHA is the longest and most desaturated fatty acid in most animal tissues.
Free Radicals
: Highly reactive molecules that can alter or destroy neighboring molecules and are controlled by antioxidants. Free radical reactions in tissues can cause cancer and atherosclerosis; react
G
Gas-Liquid Chromatography
: A method for separating and analyzing the different fatty acids in a tissue or fat. It relies on the differential mobility of those molecules in a support medium.
H
Highly Unsaturated Fatty Acids (HUFAs)
: Fatty acids that contain three or more double bonds and are at least twenty carbons long. The most important HUFAs in the body are AA, DGLA (dihomogamma-linolenic acid), EPA, and DHA. Animals make Mead's acid, a HUFA derived from oleic acid, only when they are deficient in essential fats.
Hydrogenation
: The chemical conversion of polyunsaturated vegetable or fish oils into solid (saturated) fats by the addition of hydrogen to all the double bonds. This process, invented at the turn of the twentieth century, requires the presence of a metal catalyst.
I
Inflammation
: A local response to stimuli that often involves redness, heat, pain, swelling, and loss of normal tissue function due to a release of inflammatory eicosanoids and other mediators.
J
K
L
Leukotrienes
: A kind of eicosanoid formed from the action of a lipoxygenase (LOX) enzyme on twenty-carbon highly unsaturated fatty acids. See
eicosanoids.
Linoleic Acid
: An eighteen-carbon fatty acid with two double bonds that is the parent of the essential omega-6 family of fatty acids. Plants store most of the fat in their seeds as linoleic acid, which they convert to alpha linolenic acid upon germination. As the use of seed oils has increased in the United States and other Western countries, linoleic acid has become much more prevalent in diets than alpha linolenic acid.
Linolenic Acid
: Any of several fatty acids with three double bonds. Alpha linolenic acid, the parent omega-3 fatty-acid, is the most prevalent form of linolenic acid, but several omega-6 forms also exist. See
alpha linolenic acid.
Lipid
: A compound that is not very soluble in water because of its many carbon atoms. The most abundant lipid in living tissues is fat or triglycerides, other important lipids are cholesterol and phospholipids.
Lipoprotein
: An assembly of lipids and proteins used by living tissues. Lipoproteins in the blood carry fats around the body. The nonpolar fats and cholesterol are in the middle of these assemblies, shielded from the water-based blood, and the proteins and polar lipids (including the phospholipids) are on the outside. Interactions of these proteins on the surfaces of cells and with enzymes in the blood determine whether triglycerides and cholesterol will be added to or removed from lipoprotein. High-density lipoproteins collect cholesterol from the body's tissues and bring it back to the liver. Low-density lipoproteins carry chlesterol from the liver to the cells of the body.
M
Mead's Acid
: See
highly unsaturated fatty acids.
Membranes
: The millionth-of-a-centimeter-thick envelopes that enclose our cells and the components within them. Membranes control traffic in and out of cells; proteins embedded in them conduct most of a cell's business. The backbone of every membrane is a bilayer of phospholipids: the phosphorus groups are on the outside and the fatty tails are buried in the middle. The ability of phospholipids to form bilayers is build into their molecular structure. Below is a representation of a section of the highly unsaturated membrane of the rod cells of the eye (adapted from D.C. Mitchell, K. Gawrisch, B. J. Litman, and N. Salem, Jr., et al., "Why Is Docosahexaenoic Acid Essential for Nervous System Function?" Biochemical Society Transactions 26 [1998]: 368)..
N
O
Oleic Acid
: An eighteen-carbon fatty acid with one double bond. Oleic acid is abundant in olive oil and can be formed by all living things-animals as well as plants. Its double bond is before the ninth-to-last carbon, and it is therefore known as an omega-9.
Omega-3s
: The Omega-3s are a family of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Fatty acids are building blocks that the body uses to maintain optimal cellular health. Omega-3s are essential nutrients for humans - deficiencies in Omega-3 can lead to a variety of health conditions, including cardiovascular, mood, mind and inflammatory conditions. The Omega-3 family is found mainly in fish, and especially in oil-rich fish such as herring, mackerel and sardines. Small amounts of the Omega-3s are found in eggs. Certain vegetable oils such as linseed (flaxseed), rapeseed (canola) and walnut oil also contain a type of Omega-3.
Omega-6s
: A family of polyunsaturated fatty acids that share a double bond before the sixth-to-last carbon and compete with omega-3s for enzymes and positions in cell membranes. A high omega-6 to omega-3 ratio has been linked to many human deseases.
Omega-9s
: A family of unsaturated family acids that originate with oleic acid and share a double bond before the ninth-to-last carbon.
Oxidation
: The addition of oxygen to a chemical structure. In oils, oxidation causes rancidity..
P
Pacemaker Theory
: The theory (also known as the leaky membrane hypothesis) that an animal's metabolic rate is determined by the number and type of unsaturated fatty acids in its cell membranes.
Partial Hydrogenation
: A chemical process for adding hydrogen atoms to only some of the double bonds in polyunsaturated fatty acids, leaving others intact or turning them into trans bonds. Also known as selective hydrogenation, partial hydrogenation eliminates the alpha linolenic acid in an oil but leaves most of the linoleic acid.
Phospholipases
: The enzyme that release fatty acids from membranes so that they can be turned into eicisanoids.
Phospolipids
: A major component of cell membranes. Phospholipids resemble triglycerides except that a polar phosphate group has replaced one of the three hydrocarbons, thereby giving phospholipids a water-insoluble and a water-soluble part and leading to the spontaneous formation of the bilayers that make up membranes.
Platelets
: A specialized type of blood cell that adheres to bloods vessel walls and can aggregate to form a clot, or thrombus.
Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids (PUFAs)
: Fatty acids containing at least two double bonds.
Prostacyclin
: A type of prostaglandin produced by the endothelial cells of blood vessels that counteracts the tendency of blood to form clots.
Prostaglandin
: A type of prostaglandin produced by the endothelial cells of blood vessels that counteracts the tendency of blood to form clots.
Q
R
S
Saturated Fatty Acids
: A fatty acid ub which all the bonds between the carbons have the full complement of hydrogens -i.e., there are no double bonds.
T
Thromboxane
: An eicosanoid derived from a prostagladin intermediate that causes the aggregation of platelets and the contraction of muscles.
Trans Conformation
: A double bond in which the two hydrogens are on the opposite sides of the molecule. Trans bonds force hydrocarbons into a more linear, zigzag conformation and dramatically raise the temperature at which they go from being a solid to a liquid. Trans fats are formed during the partial hydrogenation of fats. They are also formed by bacteria in the stomachs of ruminants and are naturally present in small amounts in butter and other dairy products.
Triglycerides
: A technical name for fats and the predominant component of food fats and oils. Triglycerides with two or more saturated fatty acids produce fats that are solid at room temperature, such as butter, lard, and coconut oil. Triglycerides with two or more unsaturated fatty acids produce fats that are liquid at room temperature such as vegetable and fish oils. Shown below is a triglyceride made up of three saturated fatty acids.
U
Unsaturated Bond
: A double bond between two carbon atoms in a carbon compound. Since these carbons do not have the full complement of hydrogens, the bond is said to be unsaturated.
V
W
X
Y
Z
