https://phys.org/news/2018-05-plasmalogens-phospholipids.html

"These molecules, plasmalogens, have been swept under the rug because nobody likes to think about them," said Richard Gross, the professor at Washington University who oversaw the new study. "(They're) hard to work with. They're susceptible to light, they're stable in only certain solvents, they have a limited lifespan after they're synthesized unless extreme precautions are taken, and they're expensive to make and synthesize."

In the new study, Gross' team performed painstaking experiments to find the elusive mechanism by which plasmalogens are enzymatically degraded. Cytochrome c is typically found in mitochondria where it facilitates electron transport, but it is released into the cell under stressful conditions. Gross' team showed that cytochrome c released from the mitochondria can catalyze the breakdown of plasmalogens in the cell. Further, the products of this reaction are two different lipid signaling molecules which were not previously known to originate from plasmalogen breakdown.