Free radical fragmentation and oxidation in the polar part of lysophospholipids

Abstract

The interaction of reactive oxygen species with cell membrane lipids is usually considered in the context of lipid peroxidation in the nonpolar component of the membrane. In this work, for the first time, data were obtained indicating that damage to human cell membranes can occur in the polar part of lysophospholipids at the interface with the aqueous environment due to free radical fragmentation (FRF) processes. FRF products, namely 1-hexadecanoyloxyacetone (PAc) and 1-octadecanoyloxyacetone (SAc), were identified in human serum, and a GC-MS method was developed to quantify PAc and SAc. The content of FRF products in serum samples of 52 healthy donors was found to be in the range of 1.98–4.75 μmol/L. A linear regression equation, CPAc&SAc (μmol/L) = 0.51 + 0.064 × years, was derived to describe the relationship between age and content of FRF products. In 70 patients with acute surgical pathology in comparison with the control group of healthy donors, two distinct clusters with different concentration levels of FRF products were revealed. The first cluster: groups of 43 patients with various localized inflammatory-destructive lesions of hollow organ walls and bacterial translocation (septic inflammation) of abdominal cavity organs. These patients showed a 1.5–1.9-fold (p = 0.012) decrease in the total concentration of PAc and SAc in serum. In the second cluster: groups of 27 patients with ischemia-reperfusion tissue damage (aseptic inflammation), – a statistically significant increase in the concentration of FRF products was observed: in 2.2–4.0 times (p = 0.0001). The obtained data allow us to further understand the role of free-radical processes in the damage of lipid molecules. FRF products can potentially be used as markers of the degree of free-radical damage of hydroxyl containing phospholipids.