2.8. β-oxidation of [1-14C]-labelled fatty acids
Oxidation of [1-14C]-labelled fatty acids was determined essentially
as described previously but with some modifications (Tocher et al.,
2004). The cells were incubated with [1-14C]-labelled fatty acids as
described above and at the end of the incubation, a 0.5 mL subsample
of the medium was taken and set aside. The remainder of the medium
was discarded, the cell monolayer was washed with PBS and the cells
were detached with 0.05% (w/v) trypsin/0.02% (w/v) EDTA in PBS. The
isolated cells were washed in HBSS containing 1% (w/v) FAF-BSA before
being resuspended in HBSS alone and homogenised using an ULTRATURRAX®
(IKA®) mechanical homogeniser. A subsample (0.5 mL) of
the homogenate was taken and set aside. One-hundred microlitres of
6% (w/v) FAF-BSA in water was added to the subsamples of both the
culture medium and the homogenised cells before acid-insoluble products
were precipitated by the addition of 1.0 mL of ice-cold 4 M HClO4.
The samples were centrifuged at 3500 g for 10 min and 0.5 mL of the
supernatant was mixed with 4 mL of scintillation fluid and radioactivity