Bioavailability and Functionality of Conjugated Fatty Acids in Foods

Dietary conjugated fatty acids are associated with heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and others; in addition, many functions of cell membranes are dependent on lipid composition and lipids ingested through the diet can modify this composition and their biochemical activity. Due to the discoveries of their chemical and physiological properties, there is a growing interest in conjugated fatty acids as well as in the properties of their isomers. Conjugated fatty acids (CFAs) are the general term to describe the positional and geometric isomers of polyunsaturated fatty acids with conjugated double bonds, which are separated by a single carbon-carbon bond rather than being separated by a methylene group (CH2). Theoretically, several isomers of conjugated fatty acids are possible, with multiple combinations of numerical, positional and geometric configurations of the conjugation of double bonds, which may present as conjugated linoleic and α-linolenic acids and may have different functionalities in the body.