Fig. 3

The synthesis of TGs in cancer cells. TG is synthesized by two major biochemical pathways, i.e., the glycerol 3 phosphate pathway (G3P) and the monoacylglycerol (MAG) pathway. In the G3P pathway, fatty acyl-CoA was condensed with G3P backbone to synthesize phosphatidic acid under the catalyzation of the glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase (GPAT) and acylglycerolphosphate acyltransferase (AGPAT), followed by dephosphorylation to obtain diacylglyceride (DAG). Further, DAG is converted to TG under the catalyzation of DGAT1 and DGAT2 [165]. In the MAG pathway, monoacylglycerol acyltransferases (MGATs), an isoform of which includes MGAT 1–3 located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membrane, are the main enzymes responsible for TG synthesis that catalyze conversion of MAG to DAG along with fatty acyl-CoA [66, 67]. After synthesis of DAG, DGAT1 and DGAT2 are responsible for the synthesis of TG by using DAG and fatty acyl-CoA as substrates