Lipoxygenase Products

Lipoxygenases are a family of non-heme, iron-containing enzymes most of which catalyze the dioxygenation of polyunsaturated fatty acids in lipids containing a cis,cis-1,4-pentadiene into cell signaling agents that serve various roles as autocrine signals that regulate the function of their parent cells, paracrine signals that regulate the function of nearby cells, and endocrine signals that regulate the function of distant cells. Human proteins expressed from the lipoxygenase family include ALOX12, ALOX12B, ALOX15, ALOX15B, ALOX5, and ALOXE3. While humans also have the ALOX12P2 gene, which is an ortholog of the well-expressed Alox12P gene in mice, the human gene is a pseudogene; consequently, ALOX12P2 protein is not detected in humans.