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Tissue expression characterization of chicken adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein and its expression difference between fat and lean birds in abdominal fat tissue¹

College of Animal Science and Technology, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin, 150030, P. R. China

³ Corresponding author: lihui{at}neau.edu.cn or lihui645{at}hotmail.com

Fatty acid-binding proteins are considered to be the carriers for the transportation of intracellular fatty acids and play an important role in the development of fatness traits. Adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein (A-FABP) is one of the family members. The current study was designed to analyze the tissue expression characterization of chicken A-FABP and its expression difference between the fat and lean males in abdominal fat tissue to reveal the possible relationship between the expression of A-FABP and abdominal fat tissue development and growth in chicken. First, fusion protein glutathione S-transferase/A-FABP was induced and purified, and then the antiserum containing specific polyclonal antibodies was obtained by immunizing healthy female rabbits using the purified fusion protein. Second, tissue expression characterization of A-FABP was investigated by Western blot. Finally, A-FABP expression difference in abdominal fat tissue between the fat and lean males was investigated by real-time reverse transcription-PCR and Western blot methods. The results showed that A-FABP expressed specifically in abdominal fat tissue and the mRNA expression level of A-FABP in fat males was lower than that of lean males at 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, and 10 wk of age (P < 0.05), and the protein expression level of fat males was lower than that of lean males at 6 and 10 wk of age (P < 0.05). These results suggested that chicken A-FABP might affect abdominal fat deposition through changing its expression level, and the possible mechanism may be that a high expression level of A-FABP induced the high lipolytic rate and led to the decreased abdominal fat mass accordingly.

Key Words: adipocyte fatty acid-binding protein • expression characterization • expression difference • fat and lean males

¹ This research was supported by the National 973 Project of China (no. 2006CB102105), National Natural Science Funds (no. 30771542), and the National 863 Project of China (no. 2006AA10A120).

² These authors contributed equally to this paper.