Lipid metabolism: fatty acid oxidation and synthesis, cholesterol metabolism
Biochemistry · MBBS
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Study notes
A fasting patient's breath smells fruity and blood ketones are high. This is ketosis — liver converts fatty acids to ketone bodies (acetoacetate, beta-hydroxybutyrate, acetone) when glucose is scarce; brain and heart burn them. In starvation it's adaptive (protein-sparing); in type 1 diabetes it's ketoacidosis — insulin absence unleashes lipolysis, ketones flood, pH falls. The fruity acetone breath distinguishes the two contexts — same chemistry, different danger.
Related topics
- Biomolecules: carbohydrates — structure and classification
- Biomolecules: lipids — structure, classification, lipoproteins
- Biomolecules: proteins — structure, classification, amino acids
- Biomolecules: nucleotides, nucleic acids, DNA structure
- Enzymes: kinetics, inhibition, regulation, clinical enzymology
- Bioenergetics: electron transport chain, oxidative phosphorylation