The other functions it performs include insulation, energy storage, protection and cellular communication. Cells are the building blocks of all organisms and lipids are considered the building blocks of cells.
Without lipids, your cells will not be able to survive. One of the main functions lipids do is storing energy. If a person eats excessive amount of food, lipids help store the energy in the form of fat molecules in the body to use later. Lipids are present in every cell of the human body and are the main part of the cellular membrane. It prevents the cells from being leaky by surrounding them the perfect way. Lipids are also essential for the human body as they are a part of many hormones.
They play a major role in regulating your growth and how your body works on a daily basis. The hormones of which lipids are an essential part include. These are produced by the ovaries are responsible for developing female sexual characteristics such as physique and menstrual cycle. The cell membrane is comprised of two layers of lipid: phospholipids and glycolipids, with a hydrophilic water-loving head group and hydrophobic water-hating fatty acid tails that are 14 to 24 carbon atoms long.
The long hydrophobic fatty acid tails of phospholipids and glycolipids clump together in the interior of the membrane and the hydrophilic head groups line the inner and outer sides of the membrane. The membrane separates the inside of the cell from the outside, and most molecules require a specific protein to help it cross the membrane.
Cholesterol is a very common lipid in the body and has 27 carbon atoms linked together in rings, rather than having long chain fatty acids.
Except for a hydrophilic alcohol group on cholesterol, the entire molecule is hydrophobic, and most of the cholesterol molecule is in the center of the membrane. Cholesterol is modified into corticosteroids in the adrenal glands. Glucocorticoids regulate the metabolism of sugars and the stress response.
Mineralocorticoids regulate the salt and water balance in the body. Cholesterol is also made into androgens, like testosterone, and estrogens, which regulate reproduction and secondary sexual characteristics that make males look masculine and females look feminine. Sunlight helps the body turn cholesterol into Vitamin D, which regulates calcium and phosphorus metabolism and is crucial for strong bones and teeth.
Vitamin A is required for retinol production and good eyesight. Likewise, glucose derived from dietary carbohydrate is broken down in a pathway called glycolysis, and the product of glycolysis can enter the citric acid cycle and then be incorporated into lipids.
Newly-synthesized lipids in your liver are utilized, stored in lipid droplets or shipped to other tissues as a component of lipoproteins called very low density lipoproteins, or VLDL. Lipid droplets are high-capacity organelles where lipids are stored within adipocytes, as well as in other cell types in your body. The lipid droplets are composed of a central core of triglycerides and cholesteryl esters with a surface coating of cholesterol, phospholipid and protein.
Fat-soluble vitamins may also be stored in lipid droplets. Lipid droplets are not static globules of fat and protein; they are dynamic structures involved with many essential cell functions in addition to lipid storage and mobilization. Adipose tissue is dispersed throughout your body. It has an insulating effect to help maintain your core body temperature, protect your internal organs from physical shocks and provides fatty acids for energy on demand. Adipose tissue also releases hormones into your blood that permit communication with other tissues.
Therefore, maintaining fat in the right places is most definitely a healthy proposition.
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