Comparison of Plasma Membrane FABP and Mitochondrial Isoform of Aspartate Aminotransferase from Rat Liver

A relationship between plasma membrane fatty acid binding protein (FABPpm), a putative membrane transporter for long-chain fatty acids, and the mitochondrial isoform of aspartate aminotransferase (m-AspAT) has been reported. Accordingly, we have compared the chemical and immunological properties of rat liver m-AspAT with those of rat liver FABPpm isolated by two procedures: 1) detergent solubilization of the membranes followed by purification via fatty acid affinity chromatography (FABP-1) or 2) salt extraction of the membranes and subsequent purification by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC; FABP-2). Comparison of the three protein preparations revealed no differences with respect to NH2-terminal amino acid sequence, amino acid composition, peptides from tryptic digests, AspAT enzymatic activity, isoelectric point, mobility on sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), retention on five different HPLC columns, and immunoprecipitation and immunoblotting of SDS-PAGE separated proteins with polyclonal antisera. Examination of the proteins by nondenaturing PAGE showed a consistent second band in FABP-1 and FABP-2 not always present in m-AspAT. However, whenever present, this band was immunoreactive with antibodies to both m-AspAT and FABP-1. Hence, FABP-1 and FABP-2 are indistinguishable from one another. They are also at least closely related, if not identical, to m-AspAT.