Hydrophobic compounds such as long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) and their acyl-CoA derivatives (LCFA-CoAs) are involved in important functions within a cell such as membrane substrates, energy sources and signalling molecules. The hydrophobic nature of these compounds makes translocation between different compartments of a cell extremely difficult. Fatty acid-binding proteins (FABPs) are able to bind these hydrophobic compounds with high affinity and transport them through the cytosol for delivery to different organelles within the cell. To date, 9 human FABP-coding genes have been identified (Smathers & Petersen 2011).
