A novel ELISA for measuring CD36 protein in human adipose tissue

CD36 is a transmembrane protein present in many tissues that is believed to facilitate inward fatty acid transport. Western blotting is the most widely used method to measure tissue CD36 protein content, but it is time consuming, technically demanding, and semiquantitative. To more precisely measure adipose tissue CD36 content we developed an enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) after establishing that: 1) the anti-CD36 antibodies gave a single distinct band on traditional Western blots, and 2) the vast majority of adipocyte CD36 resides in the plasma membrane. By using serial dilutions of each sample and including a calibrator sample and quality control sample on each plate, we could achieve inter- and intra-assay variability of ∼10%. We found that CD36 content in omental and abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue varied over a 2-5-fold range depending upon the means of data expression (per units of tissue protein, weight, or lipid). Omental CD36 content in women decreased markedly (P = 0.01) as a function of fat cell size. For the most part, tissue CD36 content was not correlated with CD36 mRNA. This ELISA method for tissue CD36 content should enhance research into the role of this protein on tissue fatty acid uptake.