| dc.description.abstract | Liver fatty acid binding protein (L-FABP), an intracellular binder of free fatty acids, is believed to playa role in the targeting of fatty acids towards synthetic and/or oxidative pathways. The chick, with its dramatic shifts in energy demands during growth!development and hatch may serve as an excellent model to more clearly delineate L-FABP function. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the expression of chick L-FABP throughout embryogenesis and early development. L-FABP expression was measured at days 10, 14, and 17 of embryogenesis and days 1, 4, 7, and 11 post-hatch using western blot analysis with goat anti-chicken L-FABP as the primary antibody. The L-FABP protein bands were visualized using chemiluminescence and quantified using densitometry. L-FABP expression increases dramatically throughout embryogenesis and early post hatch. The greatest increases in L-FABP expression occurred during the key transition between early embryogenesis and hatch, increasing an average of 30 times from d10 to d21 (day of hatch). It may be suggested from the results of the current study, therefore, that L-FABP plays a major role in increasing the availability of liver fatty acids for oxidation during the critical transition period of the embryo as a poikilotherm to a homeotherm. Further studies, designed to correlate L-FABP expression with specific enzymes involved in the oxidation of fatty acids are needed to confirm this theory. | en |
