Biochemistry 4th Edition by Reginald Garrett, Charles Grisham

Exercise 5

Assessing the fatty acid binding capability of serum albumin
Human serum albumin (66.4 kD) is a soluble protein present in blood at 0.75 mM or so. Among other functions, albumin acts as the major transport vehicle for fatty acids in the circulation, carrying fatty acids from storage sites in adipose tissue to their sites of oxidation in liver and muscle. The albumin molecule has up to 11 distinct binding sites. Consult the biochemical literature to learn about the fatty acid-binding sites of albumin. Where are they located on the protein What are their relative affinities (Two suitable references with which to begin your study are Bhattacharya, A. A., Grüne, T., and Curry, S., 2000. Crystallographic analysis reveals common modes of binding of medium- and long-chain fatty acids in human serum albumin. Journal of Molecular Biology 303:721- 732; and Simard, J. R., Zunszain, P. A., Ha, C-E., et al., 2005. Locating high-affinity fatty acidbinding sites on albumin by X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U.S.A. 102:17958-17963.)