ReviewJournal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism2013
Why does brain metabolism not favor burning of fatty acids to provide energy? Reflections on disadvantages of the use of free fatty acids as fuel for brain.
Review in Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 268 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
268 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 441 citations in OpenAlex.
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- ApoTransferrin Induces Accumulation of Lipid Droplets in Oligodendroglial Cell.Neurochemical research · 2026Article
- Untargeted serum metabolomics and air pollution in Parkinson's disease.NPJ Parkinson's disease · 2026Article
- A scoping review of computational models on human glucose cerebral metabolism.Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2026Review
- Metabolic crosstalk in the ageing brain: astrocyte-neuron coupling as a target for homeostatic restoration and therapy.Translational neurodegeneration · 2026Review
- Voluntary running exercise is associated with metabolic shifts linked to adult hippocampal neurogenesis.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- MASH-Associated T Cell Activation and Neuroinflammation: Evidence for a Hepatosystemic Immune Axis.Seminars in liver disease · 2026Review
- Roles of ACSL6 in lipid homeostasis and stress responses in the nervous system.Metabolic brain disease · 2026Review
- Neuronal lipid droplets play a conserved and sex-biased role in maintaining whole-body energy homeostasis.Nature metabolism · 2026Article
- Eicosapentaenoic acid reprograms cerebrovascular metabolism and impairs repair after brain injury, with relevance to chronic traumatic encephalopathy.Cell reports · 2026Article
- Neuronal ketone body utilization couples exercise and time-restricted feeding to cognitive enhancement.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Review
- Malonyl-CoA Decarboxylase: A Spotlight on Brain Aspects.Brain sciences · 2026Review
208 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
It is puzzling that hydrogen-rich fatty acids are used only poorly as fuel in the brain. The long-standing belief that a slow passage of fatty acids across the blood-brain barrier might be the reason. However, this has been corrected by experimental results. Otherwise, accumulated nonesterified fatty acids or their activated derivatives could exert detrimental activities on mitochondria, which might trigger the mitochondrial route of apoptosis. Here, we draw attention to three particular problems: (1) ATP generation linked to β-oxidation of fatty acids demands more oxygen than glucose, thereby enhancing the risk for neurons to become hypoxic; (2) β-oxidation of fatty acids generates superoxide, which, taken together with the poor anti-oxidative defense in neurons, causes severe oxidative stress; (3) the rate of ATP generation based on adipose tissue-derived fatty acids is slower than that using blood glucose as fuel. Thus, in periods of extended continuous and rapid neuronal firing, fatty acid oxidation cannot guarantee rapid ATP generation in neurons. We conjecture that the disadvantages connected with using fatty acids as fuel have created evolutionary pressure on lowering the expression of the β-oxidation enzyme equipment in brain mitochondria to avoid extensive fatty acid oxidation and to favor glucose oxidation in brain.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.