Fig. 5: Omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolic pathway.

An illustration of the omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolic pathway with information taken from the KEGG database [45]. The arrows show individual metabolic reactions. The enzymes for each reaction are shown in italics. The dotted lines show reactions that produce linoleate as a by-product. The dashed lines show the processes by which inflammatory mediators are produced. The metabolite abbreviations are shown in bold. The enzymatic process catalysed by Δ-5-desaturase (FADS1) mediates the ratio of pro- to anti-inflammatory lipids present. PC phosphatidylcholine, LPC lysophosphatidylcholine, GPC glycero-phosphatidylcholine, FA fatty acid, COX cyclooxygenase, LOX lipoxygenase.