2.2. Fatty Acid Conjugation to Bovine Serum Albumin

Stocks of bovine serum albumin (BSA)-conjugated fatty acids at a 6:1 molar ratio (10 mM fatty acid: 1.7 mM BSA) were prepared as follows. Powdered palmitate (0.7%, w:v) was dissolved in 150 mM NaCl at 70 °C until the solution became clear (~1 h). Solutions of C6, C8, and C10 at 10 mM were obtained following the same procedure, except that their dissolution in 150 mM NaCl was achieved at 37 °C. Fatty-acid free BSA (0.12%, w:v) was dissolved in 150 mM NaCl at 37 °C. These fatty acids and BSA solutions were then slowly mixed at a 1:1 volume ratio and stirred 1 h at 37 °C, pH was adjusted to 7.4, and the final stock solutions were sterile-filtered.