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. 2023 May 13;58(4):185–196. doi: 10.1002/lipd.12372

FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 1

The ω‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acid biosynthesis pathway described in rat liver (Sprecher, 1999) plus the modifications found in human primary T lymphocytes (Robichaud et al., 2018; von Gerichten et al., 2021). (1) The first reaction in T lymphocytes is carbon chain elongation putatively by elongase‐5 (Sibbons et al., 2018; Robichaud et al., 2018; von Gerichten et al., 2021). (2) The first reaction in the hepatic pathway is Δ6 desaturation by the protein product of the FADS2 gene followed by chain elongation by elongase‐5. (3) The protein product of the FADS2 gene has Δ6 and Δ8 activities (Park et al., 2009), which are both expressed in Jurkat cells, while the Δ8 desaturase activity is predominant in T lymphocytes (Sibbons et al., 2018). (4) Desaturation at the Δ4 position is an alternative mechanism for 22:5ω‐3 synthesis in some cells 2:5ω‐3 synthesis in so (5) Elongase‐2 is not expressed in T lymphocytes (Robichaud et al., 2018; Sibbons et al., 2018; von Gerichten et al., 2021), therefore, truncating the pathway after synthesis of 22:5ω‐3. However, elongase‐2 is expressed in Jurkat cells (Sibbons et al., 2018). (6) The findings of (Moore et al., 1995; Voss et al., 1991) summarized by (Sprecher, 2000) suggest that the conversion of 24:6ω‐3 formed in the endoplasmic reticulum to 22:6ω‐3 involves translocation to peroxisomes and carbon chain shortening by one cycle of β‐oxidation.