Predicting coordinated lipid biosynthesis: application to the surfactant-accommodated epidermis.

Factorialized correlation analysis is proposed as a method for predicting the coordination of multiple enzyme pathways. The approach can be used potentially to find new relationships and to predict relationships that have been established in other tissues. However, careful tracer studies are needed to verify the cause-and-effect relationships between precursor and products. In this study, guinea pigs that were chronically treated with an anionic, a nonionic and a cationic surfactant passed through an irritation stage to a clinical state that appeared normal. The method was used to examine binary coordination of lipid biosynthesis in the epidermis by using a factorialized table of regression coefficients. Coordinated lipid relationships that have been reported in other tissues were predicted between sphingomyelin and cholesterol, as well as between phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylserine and phosphatidylethanolamine. A new inverse relationship was found between triglycerides and both sphingomyelin and cholesterol, using this method. These data are discussed with respect to a membrane fluidization model for the accommodated state.