Interactions of fluorochemicals with rat liver fatty acid-binding protein

Liver-fatty acid binding protein (L-FABP) is an abundant intracellular lipid-carrier protein. The hypothesis that perfluorooctanesulfonate (PFOS), perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), and certain related perfluorooctanesulfonamide-based fluorochemicals (PFOSAs) can interfere with the binding affinity of L-FABP for fatty acids was tested. The relative effectiveness of PFOA, PFOS, N-ethylperfluorooctanesulfonamide (N-EtFOSA), N-ethylperfluorooctanesulfonamido ethanol (N-EtFOSE), and of the strong peroxisome proliferator Wyeth-14643 (WY) to inhibit 11-(5-dimethylaminonapthalenesulphonyl)-undecanoic acid (DAUDA) binding to-L-FABP was determined. The dissociation constant (Kd) of the DAUDA-L-FABP complex was 0.47 nM. PFOS exhibited the highest level of inhibition of DAUDA-L-FABP binding in the competitive binding assays, followed by N-EtFOSA, WY, and, with equal IC(50)s, N-EtFOSE and PFOA. The in vitro data presented in this study support the hypothesis that these fluorochemicals may interfere with the binding of fatty acids or other endogenous ligands to L-FABP. Furthermore, this work provides evidence to support the hypothesis that displacement of endogenous ligands from L-FABP may contribute to toxicity in rodents fed these fluorochemicals.