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Journal of Lipid Research, Vol. 44, 1909-1918, October 2003
Copyright © 2003 by American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Transport of cholesterol across a BeWo cell monolayer

Kara E. Schmid^*, W. Sean Davidson^*, Leslie Myatt and Laura A. Woollett^1,*

^* Departments of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 231 Albert Sabin Way, Cincinnati, OH 45267
Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, 231 Albert Sabin Way, Cincinnati, OH 45267

¹ To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: laura.woollett{at}uc.edu

The placental transport of various compounds, such as glucose and fatty acids, has been well studied. However, the transport of cholesterol, a sterol essential for proper fetal development, remains undefined in the placenta. Therefore, the purpose of these studies was to examine the transport of cholesterol across a placental monolayer and its uptake by various cholesterol acceptors. BeWo cells, which originated from a human choriocarcinoma, were grown on transwells for 3 days to form a confluent monolayer. The apical side of the cells was radiolabeled with either free cholesterol or LDL cholesteryl ester. After 24 h, the radiolabel was removed and cholesterol acceptors were added to the basolateral chamber. Cholesterol was found to be taken up by the apical surface of the placental monolayer, transported to the basolateral surface of the cell, and effluxed to fetal human serum, fetal HDL, or phospholipid vesicles, but not to apolipoprotein A-I. In addition, increasing the cellular cholesterol concentration further increased the amount of cholesterol transported to the basolateral acceptors.

These are the first studies to demonstrate the movement of cholesterol across a placental cell from the maternal circulation (apical side) to the fetal circulation (basolateral side).

Abbreviations: ABCA1, ATP binding cassette transporter A1; FHS, fetal human serum; GLC, gas-liquid chromatography; LPDS, lipoprotein-deficient serum; LRP, low-density receptor-like protein; SFM, serum-free media; SLOS, Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome

Supplementary key words placenta • fetus • cholesterol efflux • low density lipoprotein • Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome

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