ABSTRACT
The physiologic importance of tissue lipids and lipid transport in the body is undeniably critical to life for all multicellular organisms. Lipids serve structural, functional, and metabolic roles within cells. Moreover, they provide insulation, protection (e.g., as waxes), and surfactant properties for various tissues. This chapter focuses on commonly evaluated lipids in serum/plasma, and factors that influence their concentrations. There are multiple ways for classifying mammalian blood lipids including blood transport form, function, or analytical properties. However, the most fundamental method is to consider physiologic lipids as subtypes of "simple" or "complex" lipids based on their structural components. The chapter provides a brief overview of lipid structure; more extensive and detailed information regarding lipid structures and anatomic and functional associations is readily available on several convenient websites including that on exogenous, and plant lipids at The LIPID Metabolites And Pathways Strategy and on structures, sources, and analytical methods at Lipid Library.
