A B S T R A C T Plasma lipoproteins from patients with familial lecithin: cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) deficiency have been fractionated by preparative ultracentrifugation and gel filtration and their lipid content and reactivity studied. All of the lipoproteins are abnormal with respect to lipid concentration or relative lipid content. The low density lipoproteins (LDL) and high density lipoproteins (HDL) appear to react normally with partially purified LCAT from normal plasma. Also, the lipids of the very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) and LDL, like those of the corresponding lipoproteins of normal plasma, are indirectly altered by the action of LCAT on normal HDL. Thus, during incubation in vitro VLDL cholesteryl ester is increased and VLDL triglyceride is decreased, as described by others for VLDL from hyperlipemic plasma, and both the unesterified cholesterol and lecithin of the VLDL and LDL are decreased. The patients' VLDL and LDL are abnormal, however, in that they lose unesterified cholesterol and lecithin to normal HDL in the absence of LCAT. Also, the patients' HDL lose these lipids to erythrocyte membranes in the absence of the enzyme.Our results provide further evidence that the abnormal cholesterol and phospholipid composition of the patients' lipoproteins is caused by the LCAT deficiency. They support the postulate that an excess of unesterified cholesterol and lecithin develops as VLDL are converted to LDL and HDL and suggest that in the absence of LCAT this excess lipid distributes among plasma lipoproteins and plasma membranes.
Mammalian synaptic membranes appear to contain high proportions of specific, sn-1-stearoyl-2-docosahexaenoyl- and sn-1-stearoyl-2-arachidonoyl phosphoglycerides, but the structural significance of this is unclear. Here we used a standardized approach to compare the properties of homogeneous monolayers of the corresponding phosphatidylcholines, phosphatidylethanolamines, phosphatidylserines, and phosphatidic acids with those of control monolayers of sn-1-stearoyl-2-oleoyl- and sn-1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl phosphoglycerides. Major findings were: 1), that the presence of an sn-2-docosahexaenoyl group or an sn-2-arachidonoyl group increases the molecular areas of phosphoglycerides by 3.8 A(2) (7%) relative to the presence of an sn-2-oleoyl group; 2), that the phosphorylcholine headgroup independently increases molecular areas by a larger amount, 7.1 A(2) (13%); and 3), that the dipole moments of species having an arachidonoyl moiety or an oleoyl moiety are 83 mD (19%) higher than those of comparable docosahexaenoic acid-containing phosphoglycerides. These and other results provide new information about the molecular packing properties of polyenoic phosphoglycerides and raise important questions about the role of these phosphoglycerides in synapses.
Animal cells can convert 20-carbon polyunsaturated fatty acids into prostaglandins (PGs) and leukotrienes. These locally produced mediators of inflammatory and immunological reactions act in an autocrine or paracrine fashion. Arachidonic acid (AA), the precursor of most PGs and leukotrienes, is present in the form of lipid esters within plasma lipoproteins and cannot be synthesised de novo by animal cells. Therefore, AA or its plant-derived precursor, linoleic acid, must be provided to cells if PGs or leukotrienes are to be formed. Because several classes of lipoproteins, including low-density lipoproteins (LDL), very-low-density lipoproteins, and chylomicron remnants, are taken up by means of the LDL receptor, and because LDL and very-low-density lipoproteins, but not high-density lipoproteins, stimulate PG synthesis, we have suggested previously that PG formation is directly linked to the LDL pathway. Using fibroblasts with the receptor-negative phenotype of familial hypercholesterolaemia and anti-LDL receptor antibodies, we show here that LDL deliver AA for PG production and that an LDL receptor-dependent feedback mechanism inhibits the activity of PGH synthase, the rate-limiting enzyme of PG synthesis. These results indicate that the LDL pathway has a regulatory role in PG synthesis, in addition to its well-known role in the maintenance of cellular cholesterol homeostasis.
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