biological activity in most cases or have lower or different activities from the epoxides though it is difficult to draw a general conclusion for example diols of linoleate epoxides are pro-inflammatory [30, 31]. Besides the sEH mediated degradation the free EFAs may also undergo spontaneous hydration, chain elongation or β-oxidation [9, 11]. Glutathione conjugation of these relatively stable epoxides is generally slow. The epoxy-fatty acids can also be acted on by further P450 oxidative reactions as well as fatty acid binding protein (FABP) uptake [18]. Lastly the EFAs are efficiently incorporated into lipid bilayers though it is not yet fully clear if this eliminates their biological activity because there are proposed actions of membrane bound EETs [13]. Nevertheless, the tight regulation of EFAs reveals their importance as essential signaling molecules.
