Fatty acid modulation of HepG2 cell cholesterol biosynthesis and esterification

✍ Scribed by Harald F. Schäfer; Reinhard Kattermann

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 571 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-9120
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-9120(92)80008-5

✦ Synopsis

We investigated the effects of medium supplementation with increasing amounts of different fatty acids on HepG2 cell cholesterol biosynthesis and esterification. Up to 200 ~M 16:0 led to an increase in cholesterol secretion/synthesis of 60%/40%; 18:1, 18:2, or 18:3 decreased secretion/synthesis by 35%/25%, 65%/ 65%, and 60%/60%; 80 p.M 20:5 caused a reduction of 75%/50%. Compared to 200 p.M 16:0, 18:2 led to a 50% reduced cellular cholesterol ester biosynthesis; the effect of 30 I~M 20:5 was comparable to that of 18:2 while the addition of 200 p.M 18:1 raised esterification. Supplementation of 18:2 reduced the cellular cholesterol ester content by 50%; 16:0 led to an increase of 80%. The effects of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids seem to be related to their number of double bonds and could be due to changes in membrane phospholipid fatty acid composition.

VLDL-triglyceride secretion during supplementation with various fatty acids (9). In contrast, we investigated alterations in the biosynthesis and esterification of cholesterol in isolated human hepatocytes after long-term addition of saturated, mono-, and polyunsaturated fatty acids to the culture medium using the human hepatoma-derived cell line HepG2 (10), a useful model for hepatocyte cholesterol and lipoprotein metabolism (11).