Work

Identification and quantification of dolichol and dolichoic acid in neuromelanin from substantia nigra of the human brain

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: Neuromelanin (NM) isolated from the substantia nigra of the human brain is found to contain a series of dolichoic acids (dol-CA) containing 14-20 isoprene units. This is the first observation of dol-CA in a natural system. Using internally spiked nor-dolichol and nor-dolichoic acid standards, the concentrations of dolichol (dol) and dol-CA present in NM were determined. Remarkably, dol was only four times as abundant as dol-CA in NM. The distribution of dol-CA chains lengths in NM also differed from that of dol, suggesting that the enzyme(s) responsible for the conversion of dol to dol-CA prefer a dolichol substrate containing 19 isoprene units.

Source: Journal of Lipid Research

DOI: 10.1194/jlr.c700008-jlr200