The Role of Acylcoa Binding Protein (ACBP) and Long-Chain Acylcoa Esters in Cell Regulation and Function

Abstract

ACBP was discovered independently by five different groups. First it was isolated from rat brain as a modulator of the GABAA receptor complex (Guidotti et al., 1983) and given the name Diazepam Binding Inhibitor (DBI). It was then identified as a bovine brain factor which affected cell growth (Marquardt et al., 1986; Shoyab et al., 1986). The third group identified the ACBP on its ability to modify the chain length of fatty acids synthesized by goat fatty acid synthetase (Mogensen et al., 1987) and named the protein AcylCoA Binding Protein (ACBP), and it was not until 1989 it became clear that ACBP and DBI were identical proteins (Knudsen et al., 1989). ACBP/DBI was also identified as an intestinal factor which acted as an inhibitor of glucose-induced insulin secretion from the pancreas (Chen et al., 1988). Finally, it was identified as an adrenal factor which stimulated adrenal mitochondria pregnenolone synthesis (Yanagibashi et al., 1988; Besman et al., 1989).