ArticlePLoS biology2018
The lysolipid transporter Mfsd2a regulates lipogenesis in the developing brain.
Article in PLoS biology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 62 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 101 citations in OpenAlex.
- Pooled it
- Maternal Docosahexaenoic Acid Status during Pregnancy and Its Impact on Infant Neurodevelopment.Nutrients · 2020Trial
- The SLC-ome of membrane transport: from molecular discovery to physiology and clinical applications.Physiological reviews · 2026Review
- MFSD2A in health and disease: lysolipid transport, barrier physiology, and translational boundaries.Molecular biomedicine · 2026Review
- The regulatory network of Mfsd2a in cerebral ischemia: a novel time-targeted intervention framework.Molecular biology reports · 2026Review
- Review
- Integrated multi-matrix metabolomics reveals gut microbiota-driven systemic metabolic alterations and therapeutic remodeling by fecal microbiota transplantation in autism spectrum disorder.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Article
- Synergistic Neuroprotection of MFSD2A Overexpression and DHA Supplementation in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.Molecular neurobiology · 2026Article
- Sex Differences in Metabolite-Immune Circuits of Neuroinflammation.Immunological reviews · 2026Review
- Mfsd2a is important for maintaining epidermal homeostasis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026Article
- L-Borneolum Attenuates Ischemic Stroke Through Remodeling BBB Transporter Function via Regulating MFSD2A/Cav-1 Signaling Pathway.Brain sciences · 2026Article
- Human milk phospholipids across lactation stages and their associations with infant neurodevelopment: a prospective cohort study in China.Frontiers in nutrition · 2026Article
- MFSD2A: a molecular nexus linking blood-brain barrier, lipid metabolism, and ischemia-reperfusion injury.Cellular & molecular biology letters · 2025Review
- Exploring novel roles of lipid droplets and lipid metabolism in regulating inflammation and blood-brain barrier function in neurological diseases.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Review
- CSF sphingolipids are correlated with neuroinflammatory cytokines and differentiate neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder from multiple sclerosis.Journal of neurology, neurosurgery, and psychiatry · 2024Article
- Automated collective variable discovery for MFSD2A transporter from molecular dynamics simulations.Biophysical journal · 2024Article
- Cancer cell metabolism and antitumour immunity.Nature reviews. Immunology · 2024Review
- The Impact of High-Dose Fish Oil Supplementation on Mfsd2a, Aqp4, and Amyloid-β Expression in Retinal Blood Vessels of 5xFAD Alzheimer's Mouse Model.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- Acyl-CoA synthetase 6 controls rod photoreceptor function and survival by shaping the phospholipid composition of retinal membranes.Communications biology · 2024Article
- Dietary LPC-BoundNutrients · 2024Article
2 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
10 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Brain development requires a massive increase in brain lipogenesis and accretion of the essential omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Brain acquisition of DHA is primarily mediated by the transporter Major Facilitator Superfamily Domain containing 2a (Mfsd2a) expressed in the endothelium of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and other abundant cell types within the brain. Mfsd2a transports DHA and other polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) esterified to lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC-DHA). However, the function of Mfsd2a and DHA in brain development is incompletely understood. Here, we demonstrate, using vascular endothelial-specific and inducible vascular endothelial-specific deletion of Mfsd2a in mice, that Mfsd2a is uniquely required postnatally at the BBB for normal brain growth and DHA accretion, with DHA deficiency preceding the onset of microcephaly. In Mfsd2a-deficient mouse models, a lipidomic signature was identified that is indicative of increased de novo lipogenesis of PUFAs. Gene expression profiling analysis of these DHA-deficient brains indicated that sterol regulatory-element binding protein (Srebp)-1 and Srebp-2 pathways were highly elevated. Mechanistically, LPC-DHA treatment of primary neural stem cells down-regulated Srebp processing and activation in a Mfsd2a-dependent fashion, resulting in profound effects on phospholipid membrane saturation. In addition, Srebp regulated the expression of Mfsd2a. These data identify LPC-DHA transported by Mfsd2a as a physiological regulator of membrane phospholipid saturation acting in a feedback loop on Srebp activity during brain development.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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.