Lipid metabolism
Lipid metabolism is the network of biochemical processes that synthesize, modify, transport, store, and degrade lipids.
Lipid metabolism is the network of biochemical processes that synthesize, modify, transport, store, and degrade lipids. It includes the handling of fatty acids, triglycerides, phospholipids, cholesterol, and related lipid-derived metabolites. These processes occur across several cellular compartments and organs, particularly the liver, adipose tissue, intestine, skeletal muscle, and macrophages. Lipid metabolism is integrated with glucose homeostasis, amino acid metabolism, and energy metabolism, enabling cells to use lipids as energy substrates, construct biological membranes, and generate signaling molecules.
The balance between lipid biosynthetic processes and lipid breakdown is important for metabolic health. Disruption of this balance can contribute to obesity, insulin resistance, metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), type 2 diabetes, and atherosclerosis. Lipid accumulation may also interact with oxidative stress, reactive oxygen species, inflammation, and apoptosis. In cancer, altered lipid metabolism can support tumor growth and may influence ferroptosis, tumor immunity, and therapeutic response. Consequently, enzymes and regulators involved in triglyceride synthesis, fatty-acid production, lipoprotein uptake, and lipid storage—including MOGAT2, FASN, LDLR, and CD36—are being investigated as pharmacological or prognostic targets.
Rebuilt from PubMed 18 Sept 2026 · no new papers today
Where the papers sit
14 papers study lipid metabolism directly. Those 14 are one subject: Metabolic Disease Mechanisms. Lipid accumulation, oxidative stress and altered lipid handling recur across MASLD, obesity, ferroptosis, glaucoma and cancer immunity. Multi-omics and metabolic targets such as MGAT2, ABHD5-ATGL and PEBP1 are being used to define disease mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities. No way of splitting those 14 scores better than chance. 1 new direction follows.
MASLD lipid metabolism is a disease-stratifying determinant of systemic risk, not merely a common hepatic abnormality
The multi-omics study of genetically defined MASLD subtypes found that hepatic lipid retention, hepatic lipid synthesis, and systemic lipid metabolism are distinct routes associated with different risks across 22 extrahepatic diseases 42580475Aug. Whereas the other studies treat lipid metabolism mainly as a shared pathological process, therapeutic target, or biomarker axis, this work makes it a classifier and potential mediator of divergent multiorgan disease trajectories.
Recent Findings on lipid metabolism
These studies link disrupted lipid metabolism with hepatic lipid accumulation, inflammation, oxidative stress, fibrosis, and insulin resistance-related phenotypes 42683309Sep42680000Sep42503036Jul42445565Jul. Estradiol, VB-85387, and modified Lingguizhugan decoction reduced lipid-related disease features through effects on lipogenesis, triglyceride metabolism, antioxidant defenses, gut microbiota, or inflammatory signaling 42683309Sep42680000Sep42445565Jul. The studies identify distinct mechanisms, including MAPK suppression, PPARα induction, reduced SREBP transcription, altered autophagy, and microbiota-associated changes in triglyceride and phosphatidylcholine metabolism 42683309Sep42680000Sep42503036Jul42445565Jul. Multi-omics analysis shows that MASLD subtypes share liver disease risk but have divergent cardiometabolic effects through hepatic lipid retention, hepatic lipid synthesis, or systemic lipid metabolism 42580475Aug. These findings shift prevention and treatment toward subtype-specific targets, including PCSK9, FURIN, APOE, CCN1, ASGR1, ATG5, and MOGAT2 42580475Aug42503036Jul42680000Sep.
The cancer studies associate lipid metabolism-related programs with tumor progression, survival, and treatment-relevant tumor biology across colorectal cancer and nasopharyngeal carcinoma models 42550740Aug42191056May. In colorectal cancer, a ferroptosis- and lipid metabolism-related RiskScore predicted poorer overall survival and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment, while CRY2 knockdown reduced proliferation, migration, and xenograft tumor growth 42550740Aug. In nasopharyngeal carcinoma, grape-derived exosome-like nanoparticles delivered resveratrol and suppressed FASN/MAPK signaling, lipid metabolism, proliferation, migration, and xenograft tumor growth 42191056May. The results support functional assays and xenograft models for testing lipid metabolism regulators, but they involve different cancers and do not establish one shared mechanism.
The study reports that puerarin alleviates diabetic atherosclerosis in apolipoprotein E (APOE)-/- mice 41889194Mar. It frames endothelial dysfunction and lipid metabolism as therapeutic targets for this disease. The proposed mechanism centers on controlling follistatin-like 1 related inflammation, although the abstract provides no further experimental results.
Written from 14 PubMed abstracts, each one cited by PMID above. Published: 2026-09-03. Last written: 2026-09-04 by GPT. Drafted by language models from published abstracts; not medical advice.