Summary: | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Fatty acid 2-hydroxylase (FA2H) is the enzyme responsible for the hydroxylation of free fatty acids prior to their incorporation into 2-hydroxylated sphingolipids, which are the major constituents of the myelin leaflet. Mutated FA2H has been associated with neurodegenerative diseases. Decreased FA2H activity was demonstrated only <it>in vitro</it>, but not in patient tissues. In this study we characterized the 2-hydroxylated sphingomyelin (SM) profiles in blood and fibroblasts from patients harboring a deleterious FA2H mutatation, and found that hydroxylated fatty acid sphingomyelin is present in normal amounts in patient lymphocytes, but decreased to a different extent in fibroblasts and erythrocytes.</p>
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