What are Plasmalogens?

Healthy Aging

The World of Lipid Bingo

Whew! We just finished a healthy round of longevity and science meetings and wanted to share a common question that we received: how is C15:0 different from plasmalogens? We thought that was a great question to answer, not only in overly cold conference centers situated in overly hot places, but also in the comfort of your own home.

Okay, so what exactly are plasmalogens?

Short answer: Plasmalogens are complex lipids (aka fats) that our bodies make.

Longer answer: “Complex” means that plasmalogens have a variety of components and that these components can vary.  Let’s be chemists, shall we?

In the figure below from Messias et al., you can see the core structure of a plasmalogen. The red “R1” could be a variety of different saturated or monounsaturated fatty acids. The red “R2” could be a variety of different polyunsaturated fatty acids, and the “X” could be either a choline or an ethanolamine. Hence, complex. This variation explains our subtitle this week: “The World of Lipid Bingo”.

What do plasmalogens do?

As described by Mankindy et al,, plasmalogens fall under the category of glycerophospholipids, which are key components of our cell membranes that influence our cells’ stability and function. They can also have antioxidant properties. That sounds a lot like C15:0, doesn’t it?

Here’s where they differ: consider plasmalogens the exciting and less predictable molecules you date, while C15:0 is the predictable and stable molecule you marry.

I’m in. What makes plasmalogens “exciting and less predictable”?

In the chemistry world, there’s this thing called Structure-Activity Relationships. Simply, that means that the structure of a molecule determines its activities in our cells (and our bodies). As an example, we have shared how C15:0 is an essential fatty acid that is anti-inflammatory, while C16:0 (with just one carbon difference) is proinflammatory.

Understanding the complexity of plasmalogens’ structures above, it is probably not surprising to hear that what a given plasmalogen does (aka, its activities) depends on what is filling in those “R1” and “R2” slots, as well as whether it has a choline or ethanolamine at the end. That also helps to explain how plasmalogens can be both good or bad for us.

On the good side, plasmalogens (especially those with an ethanolamine) have been associated with activities that may:

• Protect brain health
• Lower inflammation
• Lower cholesterol

On the bad side, plasmalogens have been associated with:

• The development of various types of cancer
• Increased lipid peroxidation

The take home point from the most recent plasmalogen reviews is that there is promise for plasmalogens, but there is a need to better understand and characterize 1) individual plasmalogen species’ structure-activity relationships (for better or worse), 2) how these species change in our bodies when taken orally, and 3) how to help our bodies make their own healthy balance of just the right plasmalogens.