(1)Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute and Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA.

(2)Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute and Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA. Electronic address: zlokovic@usc.edu.

Abstract

Two recent papers in Nature, Ben-Zvi et al. (2014) and Nguyen et al. (2014), report a surprising dual role for the blood-brain barrier transporter MFSD2A in both establishing BBB integrity and in uptake of the fatty acid DHA.

Keywords

Brain

Docosahexaenoic acid

LPC

Brain metabolism

Lysophospholipid

Lysolipids

Major facilitator superfamily domain containing 2a (Mfsd2a)

Polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)