Plasma proteins, oxygen transport and atherosclerosis.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to G M Chisolm.
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The study of atherosclerosis often involves evaluation of aortic tissue. The effects of the fixation process on aortic dimensions is and issue of concern. Using aortography we have quantitatively assessed changes in aortic dimensions during in situ perfusion fixation at physiological pressures with 2 commonly used fixative solutions. Two dimensional aortic luminal (TDAL) areas, obtained by planimetry from X-ray images after opaque dye injection (aortography), decreased both early during perfusion fixation and later with cessation of the physiological pressure. These reductions were variable, irrespective of the fixation solution used. Long-term perfusion fixation (10 1/2-12 h) reduced, but did not prevent, changes in TDAL area compared with changes observed following a 1-h perfusion fixation period.
The cell injury caused by oxidized lipoproteins was among the first findings that led to the theory that it is the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL), not just LDL concentration, that leads to arterial disease. Voluminous studies have now revealed that oxidized lipoproteins and their constituents can induce numerous effects on cells that can be construed to be atherogenic. Cell injury is but one of these, and it is these injurious effects that are the focus of this brief review. Cell injury and death appear to play multiple roles in lesion development and the toxic lipid constituents of oxidized lipoproteins, including a variety of oxysterols, are candidates for the in vivo effectors of this cytotoxicity. Recent studies have focused on the mechanisms of oxidized lipoprotein-induced cell death, whether the cells die by apoptosis or necrosis, and the identities of the toxins that induce injury. Understanding the roles of these agents in lesion development could lead to therapies that modulate cell death and inhibit lesion formation.
The results of this study indicate that when human VLDL or LDL is prepared under conditions allowing oxidation, such oxidation renders the molecular complexes highly toxic to human skin fibroblasts growing in culture. The cytotoxicity can be predicted by assaying for the presence of thiobarbituric acid-reacting substances on the lipoprotein. However, malondialdehyde, which reacts with thiobarbituric acid and is known to be injurious to cells, was not cytotoxic in the same experimental system when dissolved in culture medium or covalently bound to non-toxic LDL. The toxic agent(s) on oxidized LDL is(are) located in a lipid-extractable moiety. Since lipid peroxides and oxidized sterols can occur in vivo under various pathological conditions, the cytotoxicity of these lipoprotein-associated substances observed in vitro may be related to certain manifestations of these conditions.
Our purpose was to determine whether the action of oxidative free radicals released by endothelial cells and vascular smooth muscle cells grown in culture could be responsible for certain modifications to low density lipoprotein (LDL). In these experiments we showed that after a 48-hour incubation with human umbilical vein endothelial cells or bovine aortic smooth muscle cells, human LDL: 1) became oxidized, as evidenced by reactivity to thiobarbituric acid; 2) lost variable amounts of sterol relative to protein (up to 20%); 3) had an increased relative electrophoretic mobility (by 30% to 70%); and 4) became toxic to proliferating fibroblasts. None of these changes occurred after a 48-hour incubation with confluent fibroblasts or bovine aortic endothelial cells, and all could be virtually prevented by the presence of butylated hydroxytoluene or other free radical scavengers. The results suggest that cells modifying LDL do so in part by an oxidation of LDL subsequent to cellular generation of free radicals.
There is indirect evidence that the oxidation of low density lipoprotein (LDL) may be involved in the development of atherosclerosis. Modification of LDL by oxidation may lead to its unregulated uptake by intimal macrophages to form foam cells. Because of the complexity of events occurring during LDL oxidation, we have tested whether LDL modified directly with 4-hydroxynonenal (HNE), a major propagation product formed during lipid peroxidation and known to be present in oxidized LDL, could bring about lipid loading of macrophages. Modification was accomplished by incubating LDL with various concentrations of HNE up to 7.5 mM. When LDL was derivatized with lower concentrations of HNE, concentration-dependent increases were observed in the covalent binding of HNE to apolipoprotein B (apo B), the blockage of the epsilon-amino groups on lysine residues of apo B, and the relative electrophoretic mobility of LDL. Decreases were observed in degradation of the modified LDL by the J774 cell line, mouse peritoneal macrophages, and smooth muscle cells. Modification of LDL by incubation with the higher concentrations of HNE resulted in LDL aggregation. This modification was associated with marked increases in the macrophage degradation of LDL. Degradation of aggregated HNE-modified LDL increased linearly with incubation time, leading to lipid loading of these cells as observed by oil red O staining and cholesterol accumulation. Uptake appeared to occur by phagocytosis, since cytochalasin D, an inhibitor of phagocytosis, quantitatively inhibited uptake and degradation of labeled HNE LDL. Uptake did not appear to be mediated by either the LDL receptor or the scavenger receptor, since competition with excess amounts of LDL or acetyl LDL failed to inhibit degradation of labeled, aggregated HNE LDL. Saturation of degradation of HNE LDL by macrophages could be attributed, in part, to steric hindrance, since both excess HNE LDL and other particulate ligands could inhibit this degradation. These studies suggest that interaction of LDL with HNE formed during lipid peroxidation could be responsible for structural modifications leading to unregulated uptake of the lipoprotein by tissue macrophages. This could partially explain lipid loading or foam cell formation in atherosclerosis.