The individual contribution of fatty acids to the development of cardiovascular diseases

Impaired fatty acid (FA) metabolism may be an important factor that increases the development and progression of atherosclerosis and related cardiovascular diseases (CVD). However, most of the research focuses on studying the influence of classification groups of FA. Therefore, the aim of this lecture was to present both pro- and antiatherogenic functions of each FA. This paper considers up-to-date information about the effects of saturated (myristic (C 14:0), palmitic (C 16:0), stearic (C 18:0)), monounsaturated (palmitoleic (C 16:1), oleic (C 18:1)), and polyunsaturated (linoleic (C 18:2 omega-6), alpha-linolenic (C 18:3, omega-3), dihomo-gamma-linolenic (C 20:3, omega-6), arachidonic (C 20:4, omega-6), eicosapentaenoic (C 20:5 omega-3), docosahexaenoic (C 22:6 omega-3) ) FAs on CVD. The accumulated data expand the understanding of the role of FAs in metabolic processes, which will allow us to move from fundamental research to practical aspects of the use of these substances in the treatment of CVD. In the future, these results can be used in the interpretation and prediction of changes in lipid metabolism disorders in CVD.