Summary
The protective influence of bovine serum albumin against growth inhibition caused by fatty acids was studied in human hepatoma (HepG2) and immortalized human kidney epithelial (IHKE) cells. In general, growth inhibition by unsaturated fatty acids (0.15 mmol/liter) increased with increasing number of double bonds. For HepG2 cells crude albumin (1g/100 ml) did not greatly modify growth inhibition by arachidonic, eicosapentaenoic, and docosahexaenoic acid. With oleic, linoleic, and linolenic acids, crude and defatted albumin stimulated cell growth. In contrast, for IHKE cells both albumins counteracted growth inhibition by unsaturated fatty acids to approximately the same extent. When HepG2 cells were cultured in the presence of saturated fatty acids (0.3 mmol/liter), C2, C6, and C8 had no or little inhibitory effect. C10 and C12 inhibited cell growth appreciably, whereas C14, and especially C16, had poor inhibitory effects. Crude albumin counteracted growth inhibition by all these fatty acids. In contrast, defatted albumin had little or no effect (except against C10 and C12), and even increased the growth inhibition by C14 and C16. With unsaturated fatty acids there seemed to be an inverse relationship between cell growth and the concentration of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in media. Vitamin E abolished growth inhibition (and the increase in TBARS concentration) by unsaturated fatty acids. The complex interaction between fatty acids and albumins calls for great caution when interpreting data on growth effects.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adam, M.; Rodriguez, A.; Turbide, C., et al. In vitro acylation of the transferrin receptor. J. Biol. Chem. 259:15460–15463; 1984.
Bramhall, S.; Noack, N.; Wu, M., et al. A simple colorimetric method for determination of protein. Anal. Biochem. 31:146–148; 1969.
Calder, P. C.; Bond, J. A.; Bevan, S. J., et al. Effect of fatty acids on the proliferation of concanavalin A-stimulated rat lymph node lymphocytes. Int. J. Biochem. 23:579–588; 1991.
Cave, W. T., Jr. Dietary n-3 (ω-3) polyunsaturated fatty acid effects on animal tumorogenesis. FASEB J. 5:2160–2166; 1991.
Chow, S. C.; Sisfontes, L.; Bjørkhem, I., et al. Suppression of growth in a leukemic T cell line by n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Lipids 24:700–704; 1989.
Deschenes, R. J.; Resh, M. D.; Broach, J. R. Acylation and prenylation of proteins. Curr. Opin. Cell Biol. 2:1108–1113; 1990.
Gøttlicher, M.; Widmark, E.; Li, Q., et al. Fatty acids activate a chimera of the clofibric acid-activated receptor and the glucocorticoid receptor. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 89:4653–4657; 1992.
Halliwell, B. Albumin—an important extracellular antioxidant? Biochem. Pharmacol. 37:569–571; 1988.
Henry, M. F.; Cronan, J. E., Jr. A new mechanism of transcriptional regulation: release of an activator triggered by small molecule binding. Cell 70:671–679; 1992.
Høstmark, A. T.; Lystad, E. Growth inhibition of human hepatoma cells (HepG2) by polyunsaturated fatty acids. Protection by albumin and vitamin E. Acta Physiol. Scand. 144:83–88; 1992.
Mayes, P. A. Lipids of physiologic significance. In: Murray, R. K.; Granner, D. K.; Mayes, P. A., et al., eds. Harper’s Biochemistry. 22nd ed. New York: Prentice Hall International Inc.; 1990:134–145.
McKiernan, S. H.; Bavister, B. D. Different lots of bovine serum albumin inhibit or stimulate in vitro development of hamster embryos. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. 28A:154–156; 1992.
Omary, M. B.; Trowbridge, I. S. Covalent binding of fatty acid to the transferrin receptor in cultured human cells. J. Biol. Chem. 256:4715–4718; 1981.
Thomassen, D. G. Variable responsiveness of rat tracheal epithelial cells to bovine serum albumin in serum-free culture. In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. 25:1046–1050; 1989.
Tocher, D. R.; Dick, J. R. Effect of polyunsaturated fatty acids on the growth of fish cells in culture. Comp. Biochem. Physiol. 100A:461–466; 1991.
Tocher, D. R.; Sargent, J. R. Effect of temperature on the incorporation into phospholipid classes and metabolism via desaturation and elongation of n-3 and n-6 polyunsaturated fish cells in culture. Lipids 25:435–442; 1990.
Tveito, G.; Hansteen, I. L.; Dalen, H., et al. Immortalization of normal human kidney epithelial cells by Nickel (II). Cancer Res. 49:1829–1835; 1989.
Veillette, A.; Bookmann, M. A.; Horak, E. M., et al. The CD4 and CD8 T cell surface antigens are associated with the internal membrane tyrosine-protein kinase p56lck. Cell 55:301–308; 1988.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lystad, E., Høstmark, A.T., Kiserud, C. et al. Influence of fatty acids and bovine serum albumin on the growth of human hepatoma and immortalized human kidney epithelial cells. In Vitro Cell Dev Biol - Animal 30, 568–573 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02631254
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02631254