Differentiational regulation and phosphorylation of the fatty acid-binding protein from rat mammary epithelial cells.

From the soluble protein fraction of lactating rat mammary epithelial cells, fatty acid-binding protein (FABP) was isolated by immunoaffinity chromatography. After digestion with trypsin, peptides were characterized with time-of-flight mass spectrometry and revealed identity with corresponding peptides derived from the heart-type FABP isolated from rat heart. In addition, by electrospray mass spectrometry the molecular mass has been determined to 14683.9 +/- 3 Da, further corroborating the identity. The content of FABP in mammary glands from virgin, pregnant and lactating rats was evaluated using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and a FABP-specific immunosorbent assay. In the two-dimensional gels FABP was the apparently most abundant cytosolic protein in mammary epithelial cells from rats in late pregnancy as well as from lactating rats. The content of FABP was 59 +/- 19 microgram/mg (n = 11) of soluble proteins from the fully differentiated lactating mammary gland as determined by ELISA. This value represented an 80-fold increase compared with the FABP content of mammary gland from virgin rats, and is comparable with the level found in rat heart. Upon stimulation with insulin a small fraction of FABP was phosphorylated in lactating mammary epithelial cells. In conclusion, these findings indicate that the FABPs from rat mammary gland and heart are identical and further suggest that in mammary gland this FABP may play a role in signal transduction downstream from the insulin receptor.