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Journal of Lipid Research, Vol. 50, 275-284, February 2009 Effects of acceptor composition and mechanism of ABCG1-mediated cellular free cholesterol efflux*
* Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
* This work was supported by HL-22633 (G.H.R., M.C.P., S.L.K.), HL-63768 (G.H.R.), RO1HL055362 (J.O.) from National Institute of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and Contract 53-3K06-5-10 (B.A.) from US Department of Agriculture. Published, JLR Papers in Press, September 30, 2008.
1 To whom correspondence should be addressed. e-mail: rothblat{at}email.chop.edu
Among the known mechanisms of reverse cholesterol transport (RCT), ATP binding cassette transporter G1 (ABCG1)-mediated free cholesterol (FC) transport is the most recent and least studied. Here, we have characterized the efficiencies of different acceptors using baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells transfected with human ABCG1 cDNA, which is inducible upon treatment with mifepristone. When normalized on particle number and particle surface area, the acceptor efficiency for FC efflux was as follows: small unilamellar vesicles (SUV)>LDL>reconstituted HDL>HDL2 = HDL3. Based on phospholipid content, the order was reversed. ABCG1 also mediated phospholipid efflux to human serum and HDL3. ABCG1-mediated FC efflux correlated significantly with a number of HDL subfractions and components in serum collected from 25 normolipidemic individuals: apolipoprotein A-II (apoA-II) (r2 = 0.7), apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) (r2 = 0.5), HDL-C (r2 = 0.4), HDL-PL (r2 = 0.4), -2 HDL (r2 = 0.4), and preβ HDL (r2 = 0.2). ABCG1 did not enhance influx of FC or cholesteryl oleyl ether (COE) when cells were incubated with radiolabeled HDL3. ABCG1 expression did not increase the association of HDL3 with cells. Compared with control cells, ABCG1 expression significantly increased the FC pool available for efflux and the rate constant for efflux. In conclusion, composition and particle size determine the acceptor efficiency for ABCG1-mediated efflux. ABCG1 increases cell membrane FC pools and changes its rate of desorption into the aqueous phase without enhancing the association with the acceptor.
Supplementary key words apolipoproteins ATP binding cassette transporter G1 BHK cells binding high density lipoprotein influx phospholipid efflux time course Abbreviations: ABC, ATP binding cassette; apoA-I, apolipoprotein A-I; apoA-II, apolipoprotein A-II; BHK, baby hamster kidney; CE, cholesteryl ester; CETP, cholesteryl ester transfer protein; COE, cholesteryl oleyl ether; FC, free cholesterol; FPLC, fast-protein liquid chromatography; DMPC, 1, 2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycerophosphocholine; egg PC, egg glycerophosphocholine; MLV, multilamellar vesicle; PEG, polyethylene glycol; RCT, reverse cholesterol transport; rHDL, reconstituted HDL disc; SM, sphingomyelin; SR-BI, scavenger receptor class B type I; SUV, small unilamellar vesicles
The release of cholesterol from cells in the vessel wall, primarily macrophage-derived foam cells, is the first step in the process termed "reverse cholesterol transport" (RCT) (1–3). It is believed that in RCT, the excess cholesterol present in peripheral cells is incorporated into HDL, which then, either directly or indirectly by transfer to LDL, delivers the excess cholesterol to the liver for excretion. A number of different mechanisms have been shown to participate in the movement of cholesterol from cells to extracellular acceptor lipoproteins. These pathways for cholesterol efflux include unmediated diffusion (4, 5) or protein-mediated transport linked to the presence in cells of scavenger receptor BI (SR-BI) (6, 7) and ATP binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) (8–10). These pathways have been discussed in detail in a number of recent reviews (4, 8, 11–13). More recently, another cell protein, ATP binding cassette transporter G1 (ABCG1), has been shown to influence the efflux of cholesterol from cells (8, 14–18). Whereas much is known about the nature of the efflux process mediated by aqueous diffusion, SR-BI, and ABCA1, little has been established about the nature of the efflux process mediated by ABCG1. It has been established that this protein is present in a variety of tissues, where it can enhance the efflux of cell cholesterol and oxysterols (15, 19, 20), and it is very promiscuous in terms of the particles that can serve as cholesterol acceptors (21). However, in contrast to the situation with ABCA1, lipid-free apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) does not serve as an acceptor of cell cholesterol provided by ABCG1 (16, 21). Based on this broad array of potential acceptors and the distribution of ABCG1 throughout the cell (22), it has been proposed that the protein may not serve as a direct transporter of membrane cholesterol to acceptors, but rather play a role by enriching the cell membrane with cholesterol that can then be incorporated into a variety of acceptor particles (8, 14, 22). The purpose of the present investigation was to study in detail the role of different acceptors in mediating cell cholesterol efflux, and in this way to gain further understanding of the ABCG1-mediated cholesterol efflux process. The experimental cell system used in the present study has been previously described in detail (22, 23). Briefly, baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells were stably transfected with an N-terminal FLAG-tagged human ABCG1 cDNA that was inducible by treatment with mifepristone. This inducible system allows for the direct assessment of the impact of ABCG1 expression on cell cholesterol flux and was used for a detailed study characterizing a number of aspects of ABCG1 and its role in cholesterol efflux (22).
Tissue culture plastic wares were obtained from Falcon (Becton Dickinson Labware, Lincoln, NJ) and from Corning Inc. (Corning, NY). Cell culture media, PBS, Dulbecco's phosphate buffered saline were purchased from Mediatech Cellgro (Manassas, VA), and FBS, calf serum, gentamycin, DNases 1, sodium choleate, and heparin from Sigma-Aldrich (St. Louis, MO). BSA was obtained from Cellianxe (Toronto, Canada). [3H] cholesterol and [3H] cholesterol oleyl ether (COE) were from Perkin-Elmer Analytical Sciences (Boston, MA). Acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyl transferase inhibitor (ACAT inhibitor), compound CP113, 818 was kindly provided by Pfizer Pharmaceuticals (Groton, CT). Bovine brain sphingomyelin (SM), 1, 2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycerophosphocholine (DMPC), egg glycerophosphocholine (egg PC) were obtained from Avanti Polar Lipids (Alabaster, AL). Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) was purchased from Cardiovascular Targets, Inc. (Audubon Biomedical Center, NY). All other reagents and organic solvents were purchased from Fisher Scientific (Pittsburgh, PA).
Cultured cells
Phospholipid vesicle preparation and HDL phospholipid modification Enrichment of HDL3 with phospholipid, DMPC, or SM, multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) was done as described (27, 28). For DMPC enrichment, 1–2 mg of HDL3 protein/ml was incubated with increasing amounts of DMPC MLVs (1.5-, 2-, and 4-fold the amount of native HDL3 phospholipid) for 2 h at the gel to liquid crystal phase transition temperature of 24°C. For SM enrichment, MLVs were added at increasing amounts (5-, 10-, and 20-fold the SM content of native HDL3, which is estimated to be 12% of total HDL3 phospholipid), and the mixture was incubated for 1 h at 37°C. Because SM has broad phase transition temperature, the mixture was warmed to 42°C and then allowed to cool slowly to 25°C over 5 h. During DMPC or SM enrichment of HDL3, as a control, native HDL3 was also incubated similarly but without addition of MLVs. After incubation of HDL3 with MLVs, any unreacted MLVs were removed by sequentially filtering the HDL3-MLV mixture through 0.45 and 0.22 µm filters. The mixture was then stored at 4°C overnight, and any remaining MLVs were removed from HDL3 by centrifugation for 30 min at 3,000 g. Phospholipid and protein concentrations were measured by phosphorus (29) and a modified Lowry (30) assays, respectively. At the end of the phospholipid enrichment procedure, the phospholipid to protein ratio of enriched HDL3 particles used in these experiments ranged from 0.48–2.05 in case of DMPC and 0.45–1.25 in case of SM. The HDL particles having the maximum enrichment of either DMPC or SM were fractionated by fast-protein liquid chromatography (FPLC) using a Superdex HR200 column. No difference in elution volume was observed indicating that the enrichment with phospholipid had no significant effect on HDL particle size.
Preparation of discoidal reconstituted HDL particles
Analysis of HDL3 association to ABCG1
For analysis of the association of [125I] HDL3, BHK cells transfected with ABCG1 were plated in a 12-well plate and after 24 h one set of cells were upregulated with mifepristone for 18 h. The cells were then washed three times with MEM-HEPES medium containing 1% BSA and were incubated for 2 h at 37°C with the iodinated HDL3 particles (0.5 ml) at different concentrations. At the end of the incubation, the medium was removed from the cells while the plates were on ice and the cell monolayers were washed three times with ice cold MEM-HEPES containing 1% BSA, followed by three washes with ice cold PBS. The cells were then solubilized in 1 ml of 0.1 M NaOH at room temperature for 15 min. Aliquots of the samples were then taken for
Cholesterol efflux and influx To measure influx of HDL cholesterol in to cells, HDL3 particles were labeled by incubation with [3H] FC (100 µCi/mg HDL3 protein) or with CETP (50 µg/ml) and [3H] COE (100 µCi/mg HDL3 protein) that had been dried on the glass wall of a test tube under N2. After incubation of HDL3 with either [3H] FC or [3H] COE overnight at 4°C, the particles were sterilized by filtration through a 0.45 µm filter. The radiolabeled HDL3 particles were diluted with DMEM and incubated with untreated and mifepristone-treated cells for 4 h in case of FC and 6 h for COE at 37°C. At the end of the incubation, the medium was removed and the cells were washed two times with Dulbecco's phosphate buffered saline. The cell lipids were extracted with isopropyl alcohol and the [3H] FC or [3H] COE present in the total lipid extract was measured by liquid scintillation counting.
Serum and lipoproteins Serum HDL-cholesterol and -phospholipid levels were measured enzymatically on a Cobas Fara II (Roche Diagnostic Systems, Inc.) using Sigma reagents (Sigma Chemical Co.). Human serum apoA-I and apoA-II levels were quantified using an immunoturbidimetric assay (Sigma Chemical Co.) and Wako Pure Chemical Industries, respectively) on the Cobas Fara.
Nondenaturing two-dimensional gel electrophoresis
Data analysis
Using the ABCG1-expressing BHK cell system (22, 23), we have tested a variety of acceptors for their efficiencies in mediating cell cholesterol efflux. The different acceptors included HDL2, HDL3, LDL, rHDL discs, and egg PC SUVs at a range of concentrations (Fig. 1 ). Because these acceptors differ in composition, efflux data are normalized on the basis of their protein content (Fig. 1A), phospholipid content (Fig. 1B), particle number concentration (Fig. 1C), and particle size (Fig. 1D). All of these particles, with the exception of lipid-free apoA-I (data not shown) act as cholesterol acceptors. The most efficient acceptor when normalized on the basis of protein was rHDL, and HDL2 and HDL3 were equally effective (Fig. 1A), while HDL3 proved to be the best acceptor when normalized on phospholipid concentration (Fig. 1B). The Km values for HDL3 and HDL2 were 47 ± 8 µg/ml and 52 ± 12 µg/ml, respectively, which were generally similar to the Km value for HDL (31 µg/ml) obtained by Vaughan and Oram (22). At a given protein or phospholipid concentration, the smaller acceptor particlesm such as rHDL disc, HDL3, and HDL2, were present in higher numbers and therefore gave higher ABCG1-mediated efflux compared with large particles such as LDL and SUV. However, at a similar particle number (Fig. 1C), and when particle size was taken into account (Fig. 1D), the larger SUV and LDL particles proved to be the most effective.
We next examined the effect of enrichment of HDL3 with DMPC or SM on ABCG1-mediated FC efflux (Fig. 2 ) by enriching HDL3 with SM (5-, 10-, and 20-fold, Fig. 2A), or DMPC (1.5-, 2-, and 4-fold, Fig. 2B). The FC efflux for untreated and mifepristone-treated cells at a fixed HDL protein concentration increased in parallel with increasing degrees of phospholipid enrichment (PC and SM). However, the ABCG1-mediated FC efflux (the difference between the mifepristone-treated and untreated cells) did not change regardless of the type of phospholipid or the level of the enriched phospholipid (Fig. 2A, B).
We also examined ABCG1-mediated phospholipid efflux (Fig. 3 ) after labeling BHK cells with [3H] choline for 24 h followed by treatment of cells with or without mifepristone. Whole serum and isolated HDL stimulated ABCG1-mediated efflux, although the fractional efflux of phospholipid was considerably less than that observed for cholesterol (Fig. 3). Lipid-free apoA-I (20 µg/ml) was completely inactive with these cells, which lack ABCA1 (Fig. 3).
It is clear that expression of ABCG1 stimulates cell cholesterol efflux; however, no information is available on this transporter's ability to enhance influx of either FC or COE from HDL3 particles. As shown in Fig. 4 , the influx of FC and COE were the same for untreated and mifepristone-treated cells, indicating that ABCG1 expression did not enhance either FC or COE influx at any HDL3 concentration. The enhanced cholesterol efflux mediated by ABCG1 without a parallel increase in FC and cholesteryl ester (CE) influx, as indicated by the isotopic data, should result in a greater net loss of cell cholesterol when exposed to HDL. To confirm the isotopic data, we compared the FC content of media supplemented with 25 µg/ml HDL3 that had been incubated with BHK control and ABCG1-upregulated cells for 8 h and 18 h. The results are presented in Table 1 . Expression of ABCG1 produced an increase in cell cholesterol efflux and an increase in the labeled cholesterol recovered in the media. Importantly, the mass of FC in the incubation media from upregulated cells was greater than the media from control cells, and this difference was evident after 8 h and 18 h of exposure to HDL3. This greater cholesterol mass in the media is consistent with the data derived from isotopic assays.
Although ABCG1 mediates FC efflux to all phospholipid-containing acceptors, HDL is thought to be the main acceptor for ABCG1-mediated efflux (14, 16, 22). We further examined what subfractions and components of HDL correlate with the ABCG1-mediated efflux by using PEG supernatants of 25 individual human sera collected from clinically healthy, normo-lipidemic subjects. Control and ABCG1-upregulated cells were incubated with the PEG supernatants for 4 h, and the ABCG1-mediated efflux was measured. We quantified the HDL components such as cholesterol, phospholipid, and apolipoproteins; and using 2D gel analysis, we characterized and measured the HDL subfractions present in the individual PEG samples. The ABCG1-mediated efflux correlated with the parameters shown in Fig. 5 . All HDL components (apoA-I, apoA-II, phospholipids, and cholesterol) were significantly correlated to ABCG1 efflux. Among the HDL subfractions, the -2 HDL subfraction demonstrated a significant correlation (Fig. 5E). A modest but significant correlation was also observed between ABCG1-mediated efflux and preβ HDL (Fig. 5F).
We further compared the efficiencies of apoA-II and apoA-I in promoting ABCG1-mediated FC efflux by incubating the cells with increasing concentrations of either apoA-I or apoA-II rHDL discs (Fig. 6 ). Because there was some difference in particle size, we obtained by FPLC apoA-II-containing discs having the same size and composition as the apoA-I disc. The data were analyzed using the Michaelis-Menten equation to provide Km and Vmax values. At low acceptor concentrations (2–8 µg/ml), the apoA-I and apoA-II rHDL discs gave rise to similar fractional FC efflux, but at high concentrations (8–100 µg/ml) the apoA-II-containing discs demonstrated somewhat greater efflux. The Vmax was greater for the apoA-II particle (8.0% FC efflux/6 h vs. 4.7% FC efflux/6 h) (Fig. 6). On the other hand, the Km values were 17 µg/ml for particles containing apoA-I vs. 32 µg/ml for the apoA-II particles, indicating that ABCG1-mediated FC efflux to the apoA-I containing particles is a high affinity process. The catalytic efficiency (Vmax/Km) of FC efflux was essentially the same for both particles (apoA-I = 0.27% FC. ml/6 h.µg; apoA-II = 0.25% FC. ml/6 h.µg).
The mechanism of ABCG1-mediated FC and phospholipid efflux to HDL is unknown. To explore the role of HDL association to the transporter, BHK control and upregulated cells were incubated at 37°C for 2 h with increasing concentrations of HDL3 labeled with [125I]. As shown in Fig. 7 , the amount of cell-associated [125I] HDL radioactivity was the same for control and mifepristone-treated cells. Thus, the upregulation of ABCG1 had no impact on HDL-cell association, consistent with a lack of specific binding of HDL to ABCG1.
We further analyzed the ABCG1-mediated efflux reaction by monitoring the kinetics of FC efflux to HDL3 (Fig. 8 ). The FC efflux time courses from control and mifepristone-treated cells fitted single-phase exponential decay curves that yielded values for the efflux rate constant (ke) and pool size. The fitting of the efflux values were consistent with one kinetic pool of FC being available for efflux, and the expression of ABCG1 induced a statistically significant (P = 0.01) increase in the size of this FC pool available for efflux from 22.0 ± 1.3% to 28.1 ± 1.4%. The ke for control cells was 0.018 ± 0.001 h–1 (t1/2 = 38 h), while that for mifepristone-treated cells was 0.025 ± 0.002 h–1 (t1/2 = 28 h) (mean ± SEM, n = 6); these values are significantly different from one another (P = 0.01). Thus, the ke and pool size for FC efflux were increased upon expression of ABCG1.
A variety of mechanisms have been shown to be involved in the efflux of cholesterol from cells (13). These include 1) unmediated aqueous diffusion, 2) SR-BI-mediated efflux, 3) efflux via the participation of ABCA1, and most recently 4) ABCG1-mediated efflux. In the present study we have collected data that aid in the elucidation of the mechanism by which ABCG1 enhances the removal of FC from cells.
Acceptor effects From considerations of colloid theory and the aqueous diffusion mechanism of cellular FC efflux, it can be shown that the collision frequency between acceptor particles and cholesterol molecules that have desorbed from the plasma membrane of cells into a given volume of extracellular medium is a function of acceptor concentration and particle size (38). Thus, the relative efflux of cellular cholesterol to different acceptors should be normalized when expressed in terms of the product (particle number concentration x particle radius). As shown in Fig. 1D, in agreement with prior work (38), this prediction holds for SUV, LDL, and the rHDL disc, supporting the notion that the ABCG1-mediated efflux proceeds via the aqueous diffusion mechanism. Interestingly, the HDL2 and HDL3 efflux curves in Fig. 1D do not coincide with the curves for the other types of acceptor particles. The higher collision frequency required with the HDL2 and HDL3 particles to achieve a given efflux may be due to their high protein surface coverage; the lower amount of phospholipid surface could reduce the number of productive collisions by which cholesterol molecules diffusing in the aqueous phase are absorbed into the acceptor particle. Acceptor composition To address further the role of phospholipid in ABCG1-mediated efflux, we conducted an assay using HDL3 particles that had been enriched with either SM or PC using a published protocol in which the HDL is incubated with multilamellar phospholipid vesicles (27, 28). As can be seen from Fig. 2, keeping the particle number constant (i.e., constant HDL protein concentration) and increasing the phospholipid to protein ratio increased efflux from the control BHK and the ABCG1-upregulated cells, as has been seen with other cell systems (27, 28). However, the difference between control and mifepristone-treated cells, which represents the ABCG1 contribution to efflux, is essentially unchanged; this is in marked contrast to SR-BI-facilitated FC efflux, which is highly sensitive to HDL phospholipid composition (28, 41). Thus, increasing the phospholipid content of the medium stimulated ABCG1-mediated efflux (Fig. 1B), but changing the phospholipid content of HDL3 while maintaining a constant particle number, had no effect on ABCG1-mediated FC efflux (Fig. 2). The enrichment with phospholipid would primarily affect the surface of the HDL and did not significantly change lipoprotein size and therefore collision frequency with desorbed cholesterol molecules; these results are also consistent with ABCG1 promoting efflux by an aqueous diffusion mechanism.
Because ABCG1 is capable, to varying degrees, of releasing cellular cholesterol to all phospholipid-containing extracellular acceptors, we determined if there are specific HDL components or subfractions that are preferential acceptors of cell cholesterol provided via the ABCG1 pathway. Because apoA-II is present in HDL subfractions that also contain apoA-I (apoA-I/A-II particles), the results illustrated in Fig. 5E suggest that these particles, when present in whole serum, are efficient acceptors of cholesterol supplied by ABCG1. It should also be noted that Association of HDL with ABCG1 The binding of extracellular acceptor particles plays a role in cholesterol efflux mediated by ABCA1 and SR-BI. To determine if there is a binding component in ABCG1-mediated efflux to HDL, we examined the association of [125I] HDL3 with control and mifepristone-treated cells. As can be seen from Fig. 7, there is a linear increase in the association of the radiolabeled HDL with the cells as the concentration of the HDL is increased; however, there is no difference in this association between control and ABCG1-expressing cells. Our finding of no association of HDL with ABCG1 disagrees with previously published data (43), whereby they have shown that reduced ABCG1 expression diminishes HDL binding with the RAW264.7 cell. This discrepancy may be attributed to the different cell types and experimental conditions that have been used. However, our data are consistent with the observation by Wang et al. (16), who also observed a lack of binding.
Mechanism of ABCG1-mediated efflux Phospholipid efflux In addition to the efflux of cholesterol, ABCG1 expression also stimulates the release of cellular phospholipids to HDL3 and to human serum (Fig. 3). Kobayashi et al. (44) have shown that ABCG1 in HEK293 cells can mediate the efflux of cholesterol as well as choline phospholipids to HDL3, and that ABCG1 differs from ABCA1 in the type of phospholipid secreted. We have measured choline-phospholipid efflux to different acceptors (Fig. 3). We observed phospholipid efflux to whole serum and isolated HDL; however, as with cholesterol efflux, incubation with lipid-free apoA-I had no ability to promote phospholipid efflux. The fractional release of phospholipid is considerably less than that obtained with cholesterol (Fig. 3 and Fig. 1A). The reason for this probably reflects the lower aqueous solubility of phospholipid compared with cholesterol consistent with the aqueous diffusion mechanism (5) and the distribution of phospholipid in plasma and internal membranes, whereas cholesterol is enriched in the plasma membrane and thus more available for efflux (45, 46). The extent to which ABCG1-mediated phospholipid release to lipoproteins can modify the composition of the acceptor particles remains to be determined. Influx The general pattern of ABCG1-mediated efflux is similar to that obtained with cells expressing high levels of SR-BI. SR-BI expression enhances the passive efflux of cell FC and also stimulates the influx of FC, and the selective uptake of HDL CE (47, 48). ABCG1 activity promotes FC efflux; thus we determined if such expression also stimulates the influx of either HDL FC or CE. The results presented in Fig. 4 demonstrate that, unlike SR-BI, expression of ABCG1 has no impact on the influx of either form of cholesterol. Incubating SR-BI-expressing cells with HDL can result in either net influx or net efflux, depending on the cholesterol gradient between the HDL and the cells (4, 13). In contrast, and on a theoretical basis, if ABCG1 were the only protein participating in cholesterol flux, its expression would result in only greater net efflux when the cells were exposed to HDL. The cholesterol mass data presented in Table 1 are consistent with the isotopic data.
Physiological implications of findings Acceptor specificity ABCG1 and SR-BI require cholesterol acceptors that contain phospholipid, and the efficiency of the acceptor is determined by the composition and size of the extracellular particle. In contrast, phospholipid-free or phospholipid-poor apoproteins or helical amphipathic peptides serve as cholesterol acceptors via the ABCA1 pathway. Binding Cholesterol efflux via ABCA1 has an absolute requirement for the binding of apoprotein to the cell, with recent evidence indicating the efficient efflux requires binding directly to the ABCA1 protein and indirectly to other membrane domains (49, 50). There is a binding component to the SR-BI-mediated efflux of cholesterol to HDL (40, 51), particularly at low acceptor concentrations; however, there is also evidence that some cholesterol efflux occurs via aqueous diffusion (52). Our present study and the results of Wang et al. (16) indicate that acceptor binding to the donor cell is not a requirement for efflux via the ABCG1 pathway. However, in all cases the expression of efflux transporter results in changes in the organization of the lipids in the plasma membrane as evidenced by an increased susceptibility of plasma membrane cholesterol to cholesterol oxidase (22). Bidirectional flux The two ABC transporters participate in unidirectional flux of cholesterol between cells and extracellular acceptors, even though the nature of the acceptors differs. In contrast, SR-BI expression enhances the efflux of cell FC and also the influx of lipoprotein FC and CE. Physiological significance The role of cholesterol efflux in RCT has largely focused on macrophages and macrophage-derived foam cells. All three transporters are present in macrophages, although the level of expression and the contribution to efflux of SR-BI remains controversial (12, 53, 54). However, it is now well established that macrophages express ABCA1 and ABCG1, and the expression of these proteins is increased in cholesterol-enriched macrophages. There is evidence that ABCA1 and ABCG1 function coordinately, with ABCA1 initially providing phospholipid to lipid-poor apoproteins (pre-β HDL) that then become further enriched with phospholipid and cholesterol through the action of ABCG1 (21, 23, 55). It can be speculated that SR-BI, if present, could also contribute to the lipidation of newly generated HDL; however it is apparent that SR-BI plays a major role in the flux of cholesterol between HDL and hepatocytes and endocrine cells, whereas the ABC transporters provide the major pathways for removal of excess cholesterol from macrophages.
Submitted on
July 10, 2008
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