Acid Lipase Inhibitor in Chicken Plasma Identified as Apolipoprotein A-I

We have reported a inhibitor of acid lipases in liver lysosomes and erythrocytes from chickens [M. Fujii et al., Int. J. Biochem., 22, 895–898 (1990)]. In this paper, the properties of the inhibitor were described in comparison with those of apo A-I of chicken.

The purified inhibitor migrated with the same mobility on SDS–PAGE as apo A-I, and had a molecular weight of 27,000. The peptide map from the lipase inhibitor was similar to that of apo A-I. Antibodies to the acid lipase inhibitor also reacted with apo A-I. Apo A-I inhibited the acid lipase activities of liver lysosomes and erythrocytes from chickens as strongly as the lipase inhibitor. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of lipase inhibitor was identical to that of apo A-I as far as residue 20. The amino acid sequence of peptides obtained from the inhibitor by cleavage with CNBr corresponded to internal sequence of apo A-I, and so the CNBr-peptides were derived by cleavage after the methionine residues in apo A-I. The findings showed that the inhibitor of the acid lipases in liver lysosomes and erythrocytes from chickens was identical to apo A-I.