Interaction of rat alpha-fetoprotein and albumin with polyunsaturated and other fatty acids: determination of apparent association constants |
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| Authors: | A Anel M Calvo J Naval M Iturralde M A Alava A Pi?eiro |
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| Affiliation: | Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y Celular, Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain. |
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| Abstract: | The interaction of fatty acids with rat alpha-fetoprotein and albumin was measured using a partition equilibrium method. alpha-Fetoprotein (AFP) displays one high-affinity binding site for fatty acids and albumin near two binding sites. The AFP association constants for most fatty acids were similar to those of albumin (in the 10(7) M-1 range) whereas for docosahexaenoic acid it was 9.7 x 10(8) M-1, about 50-fold higher than that corresponding to albumin. This difference justifies docosahexaenoic acid in fetal or neonatal serum being mainly bound to AFP and can indicate a highly specific role of AFP in the transport of this fatty acid. |
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