Chemical structure of 14,15-epoxyeicosatrienoic acid.

The Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids or EETs are signaling molecules formed by the action of Cytochrome P450 epoxygenase on 20-carbon essential fatty acids, such as arachidonic acid. Technically they are eicosanoids, though the common use of that term does not yet include them. Cytochrome P450 Oxidase (CYP2E1) Cytochrome P450 oxidase (commonly abbreviated CYP) is a generic term for a large number of related, but distinct, oxidative enzymes (EC 1. ... Essential fatty acids, or EFAs, are fatty acids that are required in the human diet. ... Arachidonic acid is a polyunsaturated fatty acid with twenty carbons and four cis double bonds, the first at the omega-6 position (20:4n-6). ... In biochemistry, eicosanoids are a class of oxygenated hydrophobic cytokines that largely function as a autocrine and paracrine mediators. ...

Biological effects

EETs are cardioprotective after ischemic heart attack and reperfusion.^[1] They act in the corpus cavernosum to maintain penile erection.^[2] A myocardial infarction occurs when an atherosclerotic plaque slowly builds up in the inner lining of a coronary artery and then suddenly ruptures, totally occluding the artery and preventing blood flow downstream. ... A corpus cavernosum is one of a pair of a sponge-like regions of erectile tissue which contain most of the blood in the male penis during erection. ...

References

1. ↑  Nithipatikom K, Moore JM, Isbell MA, Falck JR, Gross GJ.. Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) in cardioprotection: Ischemic versus reperfusion injury.. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. date=2006 Feb 10. URL accessed on 2006-03-11.
2. ↑  Jin L, Foss CE, Zhao X, Mills TM, Wang MH, McCluskey LP, Yaddanapud GS, Falck JR, Imig JD, Webb RC. (2006 Jan 13.). Cytochrome P450 epoxygenases provide a novel mechanism for penile erection.. FASEB J. 2006 Mar;20(3):539-41.. URL accessed on 2006-03-11.PubMed cite.