The study was performed to determine factors influencing the esteriflcation of plasma cholesterol in young and aged rats. The distribution of LCAT activity was determined following gel nitration chromatography and ultracentrifugation of whole plasma respectively. When rat plasma was fractionated on a Bio-Gel A-5 Mcolumn, LCAT activity was found to be associated with the HDL fraction. A similar result was observed upon 24 hr density gradient ultracentrifugation of the plasma. However, following prolonged 40 hr preparative ultracentrifugation, the majority of the LCAT activity was displaced into the lipoprotein-free infranatant fraction (d> 1.225 g/ml). The dissociation of LCAT from the HDL …
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The study was performed to determine factors influencing the esteriflcation of plasma cholesterol in young and aged rats. The distribution of LCAT activity was determined following gel nitration chromatography and ultracentrifugation of whole plasma respectively. When rat plasma was fractionated on a Bio-Gel A-5 Mcolumn, LCAT activity was found to be associated with the HDL fraction. A similar result was observed upon 24 hr density gradient ultracentrifugation of the plasma. However, following prolonged 40 hr preparative ultracentrifugation, the majority of the LCAT activity was displaced into the lipoprotein-free infranatant fraction (d> 1.225 g/ml). The dissociation of LCAT from the HDL fraction occured to a smaller extent in aged rat plasma than in young rat plasma. Plasma incubation (37°C) experiments followed by the isolation of lipoproteins and the subsequent analysis of their cholesterol content revealed that in vitro net esteriflcation of free cholesterol (FC) by LCAT as well as the fractional ufilization of HDL-FC as substrate were lower in the plasma of the aged animal as compared to that of the young animal despite the fact that the total pool of FC was higher in the former. The net transfer of FC from lower density lipoproteins (d<1.07 g/ml) to HDL provided the FC (in addition to HDL-FC) for esteriflcation in the plasma of both young and aged rats, and this process was not substantially affected by aging. Substrate specificity studies indicated that HDL from young rats was a better substrate for LCAT than the HDL from aged rats. The HDL isolated from the plasma of aged rats was enriched with apo E and had a considerably higher molecular weight than the HDL from young rat plasma. The ratio of phosphatidyl choline/sphingomyelin was lower in the HDL of aged rats. These data suggest that the decreased plasma cholesterol esteriflcation in aged rats is due to changes in the composition and size of the lipoprotein substrate (HDL).
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