FA-BSA stocks were prepared fresh prior to each experiment using the following fatty acids:
lauric,
myristic,
palmitic,
stearic,
oleic, and lin
oleic acids (all from Sigma-Aldrich). To facilitate solubilization, 80 mM of each FA was saponified in 0.1 M aqueous KOH or NaOH with heating to 70 °C and constant agitation using an Eppendorf
ThermoMixer. Utilizing established binding parameters (
Table S3), saponified FAs were added to pre-warmed (37°C) 2 mM
FA-free BSA (Roche) in PBS to achieve unbound free fatty acid concentrations equal to 11.03 nM. This concentration was selected because 0.5 mM palmitate conjugated to 0.125 mM BSA (4:1 ratio) is commonly used and equates to 11.03 nM unbound FFA, assuming a dissociation constant (K
d) of 8 nM and 6.9 predicted palmitate binding sites per molecule of BSA (Huber
et al., 2006 (
link)). The K
d values and number of predicted binding sites for each fatty acid are shown in
Table S3. Conjugation was carried out in an
orbital shaker (New Brunswick), rotating at 140 rpm at 37 °C for 1 hr. Conjugates were filter-sterilized through 0.2 μm PVDF filters and added to fresh cell culture media.
Borcherding N., Jia W., Giwa R., Field R.L., Moley J.R., Kopecky B.J., Chan M.M., Yang B.Q., Sabio J.M., Walker E.C., Osorio O., Bredemeyer A.L., Pietka T., Alexander-Brett J., Morley S.C., Artyomov M.N., Abumrad N.A., Schilling J., Lavine K., Crewe C, & Brestoff J.R. (2022). Dietary lipids inhibit mitochondria transfer to macrophages to divert adipocyte-derived mitochondria into blood. Cell metabolism, 34(10), 1499-1513.e8.