Figure 7.

Lipid metabolism in Cancer Cells. De novo lipogenesis and exogenous absorption provide fatty acids (FAs) to cancer cells. Specialized transporters, including CD36, FATPs, and FABPpm, allow external absorption of FAs from the surrounding milieu. FAs and their synthetic products can then be stored as LDs and utilized to produce NADPH and acetyl-CoA via oxidation. Cancer cells use glucose, glutamine, and acetate to synthesize citrate as carbon sources for de novo lipogenesis. Palmitate is formed from citrate by the enzymatic activities of ACLY, ACC, and FASN and can then be desaturated and extended to create a broad set of lipid species. There is an alternate mechanism for palmitate desaturation that produces sapienate rather than palmitoleate via FADS2.