Heart-type fatty acid binding protein (hFABP), also known as mammary-derived growth inhibitor, is a protein that in humans is encoded by the FABP3 gene. The intracellular fatty acid-binding proteins (FABPs) belong to a multigene family. Fatty acid-binding protein 3 gene contains four exons and its function is to arrest growth of mammary epithelial cells. This gene is also a candidate tumor suppressor gene for human breast cancer. Cardiac-type fatty acid-binding protein (cFABP) from human heart muscle of three individuals was isolated and characterized as pI 5.3-cFABP.
