Figure 17.

Physiological roles of sPLA2-IIA, as a key player in host defense against foreign self-assembled lipid structures in the blood, through the degradation of bacterial membranes, and in inflammation, where it hydrolyzes arachidonic acid from extracellular micro-vesicles, which subsequently feeds the inflammatory pathway. It also cleaves cardiolipin from extracellular mitochondria (released from activated neutrophils, platelets, mast cells, lymphocytes, etc.), liberating mitochondrial DNA that potentiates inflammation [62].