1970 Volume 68 Issue 3 Pages 369-377
Two samples of bovine serum albumin (BSA) with different lipid contents were defatted either with carbon tetrachloride or by adsorption on charcoal. Native and defatted monomers were prepared from both samples by gel filtration on Sephadex G-150 and characterized by various methods. The lipid content of the native mono-mers, as determined by thin layer chromatography, consisted of about 80% of free fatty acids and 15% phospholipids, mostly lysolecithine. Defatting removed all the phospholipids leaving about 6% free fatty acids.
The fatty acid content of the native and defatted samples was analyzed by gas liquid chromatography. Both methods of defatting reduced the fatty acid content from 1 and 2.2 mole fatty acid/mole BSA for the native samples to 0.03 mole/mole of defatted BSA. Analysis of the fatty acid distribution showed that oleic, palmitic, stearic and linoleic acids were most predominant in the native BSA samples and were most easily removed during defatting.
The mobilities of native and defatted BSA on disc polyacrylamide electrophoresis were identical.
