Final fat cut
You want it working, and it is the least contested step here. It completes what the first two lipases started, releasing the last fatty acid and the glycerol that laboratories actually measure as the marker of fat release. Unlike the other two, it is not thought to be directly hormonally regulated — so there is little to push. It is included because the pathway is not complete without it, not because it is a target.
In depth
The third lipase — it takes the final bond and frees the glycerol backbone.
What drives it
Fat-releasing enzyme (HSL) increases it.
'ATGL, considered the rate-limiting enzyme, catalyzes the first step, hydrolyzing TGs to diglycerides, which in turn are degraded by HSL into monoglycerides, with the release of a FFA in each step' (doi 10.3389/fphys.2022.826314) — the second lipase hands its product to the third. doi 10.3389/fphys.2022.826314
What it drives
It increases Releases stored fat.
'Finally, mgl completes the process through the hydrolyzation of the last ester bond in monoglycerides, generating one last ffa and a glycerol backbone' (doi 10.3389/fphys.2022.826314). And the reason it is not a target: 'Adipose TAG lipase (ATGL) and MONOACYLGLYCEROL lipase (MGL) ARE not thought to be directly hormonally-regulated' (Proc Nutr Soc). Included for completeness of the cascade, not as a lever. Independently confirmed as not a lever: 'The non-rate-limiting monoglyceride lipase completes lipolysis by cleaving the last ester bond from a monoglyceride molecule, leading to glycerol release'. doi 10.3389/fphys.2022.826314
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.