Koji Oida

Dependence of Metabolic and Structural Heterogeneity of Cholesterol Ester-rich Very Low Density Lipoproteins on the Duration of Cholesterol Feeding in Rabbits

Cholesterol ester-rich (CER) VLDL accumulate rapidly in the plasma of rabbits fed cholesterol-enriched diets. However, the major loci of enhanced synthesis of subfractions of CER-VLDL, their interaction with macrophages, and their relative contribution to atherogenesis have not yet been elucidated. To determine whether anabolism is hepatic or intestinal, subfractions of CER-VLDL were characterized at selected intervals from day 0 to 60 of cholesterol feeding. Rate zonal ultracentrifugation of CER-VLDL from rabbits fed cholesterol for 4 and 60 d demonstrated an early increase of the proportion of cholesterol carried in the intestinally-derived fraction (designated as Fx-I) of VLDL compared with that in hepatically-derived particles (Fx-H). Quantification by size exclusion HPLC also demonstrated that Fx-I was a prominent CER-VLDL component at day 4, while Fx-H particles became increasingly prominent with further cholesterol feeding. At both 4 and 60 d Fx-I stimulated cholesterol esterification and intracellular cholesterol content in macrophages more than the corresponding Fx-H did. In fact, Fx-H harvested at 4 d produced no cholesterol ester deposition. In contrast, Fx-H harvested at 60 d markedly stimulated cholesterol esterification and intracellular cholesterol content. Thus, both compositional and metabolic characteristics of CER-VLDL changed as a function of the duration cholesterol feeding.

Characteristics of lipoprotein receptors of the isolated liver parenchymal cells prepared from the streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

Characteristics of lipoprotein receptors of the isolated liver parenchymal cells prepared from the streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats were investigated. Streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats fed 1.0% cholesterol showed the exaggerated hypercholesterolemia as compared to control rats fed 1.0% cholesterol. The present study was designed to elucidate the role of lipoprotein receptor mechanisms of liver parenchymal cells in the diabetic dyslipoproteinemia. 125I-labeled lipoproteins (rat beta-VLDL, human LDL2 or rat HDL3) were incubated with liver parenchymal cells isolated by liver perfusion using collagenase. According to the Scatchard analysis, the apparent dissociation constant (kd) and maximum beta-VLDL binding (Bmax) for the higher affinity binding site in the diabetic rats (n = 6) were (11.9 +/- 5.1) X 10(2) ng/ml and 307.5 +/- 145.2 ng/10(6) cells, respectively. These binding characteristics of the diabetic rats were not significantly different from the control rats. Furthermore, there were no significant differences in the binding characteristics of human LDL2 and rat HDL3 between the diabetic rats and the control rats. The data presented suggest that significant role of alteration of lipoprotein receptor characteristics in liver parenchymal cells is not played in the diabetic dyslipoproteinemia.