Effect of unsaturated fatty acids on glycation product formation pathways

Glycation and lipid oxidation in high-nutrient foods are closely related and exhibit complex interactions. To evaluate the effect of unsaturated fatty acids (UFAs) on glycation pathways, glycation products in glucose-lysine-UFA models were detected by ultra performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and electron spin resonance spectroscopy, together with multivariate data analysis. Results indicated that UFAs inhibited glucose oxidation by decreasing the contents of carbonyl compounds about 73.85–86.19%. UFAs promoted the formation of glycation products mainly via production of active radical. In three models, linoleic acid (LA) exhibits stronger glycation activity than oleic acid and eicosapentaenoic acid. LA significantly promoted radical formation, as well as the formation and degradation of fructosyllysine (FL), the signal intensity of active radical increased 647.45% and FL increased 78.73%. The comparison of E(k3), E(k7) and variable importance in projection values of orthogonal projections to latent structures discriminant analysis in three models also proved these conclusions. By studying the characteristics of LA on glycation in three UFA, we hypothesized that unsaturation is not the key factor in evaluating their effects on glycation, the radical activity, UFA solubility, spatial structure and interaction should be considered as potentially important factors.