Partial purification of fatty-acid binding protein by ammonium sulphate fractionation.

By fractionation of rat liver cytosol with 70% saturation ammonium sulphate, a soluble fraction showing high affinity for oleic acid was obtained. The binding of oleic acid to this fraction was inhibited by flavaspidic acid. The molecular weight of the main protein present in this fraction was 12 000 as determined by SDS-poly-acrylamide-gel electrophoresis. This soluble fraction stimulated the transfer of oleic acid from microsomes to phosphatidylcholine liposomes as demonstrated by a transfer assay in vitro. The behaviour of this fraction is similar to that described for fatty-acid binding protein.