HUVEC and THP-1 co-culture with BSA-palmitate

Primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) and THP-1 monocytic cells were a generous gift from Dr. Zhen Chen at City of Hope. HUVECs were cultured in M199 media (Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated FBS (Omega Scientific, Tarzana, CA, USA) and β-endothelial cell growth factor (Sigma Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA). HUVECs between passages 5 and 9 were used for the experiments. THP-1 cells were cultured in RPMI-1640 (ThermoFisher Scientific, Waltham, MA, USA) supplemented with 10% heat-inactivated FBS (Omega Scientific, Tarzana, CA, USA). The cells were maintained in an incubator at 37 °C with 5% CO₂ and were routinely checked for mycoplasma contamination. Bovine serum albumin was conjugated to sodium palmitate as previously described, and an unconjugated vehicle was prepared in parallel [22 (link)].