Cultured human skin fibroblasts and keratinocytes: differences in the regulation of cholesterol synthesis.

The regulation of cholesterol synthesis in cultured human skin fibroblasts and keratinocytes was compared, the incorporation of [14C]-acetate or [14C]-octanoate into [14C]-cholesterol being taken as a measure of de novo cholesterol synthesis. The two types of cultured cells differed in the following features of the regulation of cholesterol synthesis: (1) Keratinocytes synthesized 10-fold more cholesterol/mg cell protein. (2) Keratinocytes retained a greater amount of the de novo synthesized cholesterol intracellularly, and fibroblasts released it to a much higher degree into the culture medium. (3) When the extracellular environment was deprived of cholesterol, the intracellular synthesis remained virtually unchanged in keratinocytes but increased markedly in fibroblasts. (4) The low-density lipoproteins (LDL) that enter the cells by receptor-mediated endocytosis and are then degraded in lysosomes, liberate cholesterol, which in turn interferes with the intracellular cholesterol synthesis. The lipoproteins strongly suppress cholesterol synthesis in fibroblasts, but do not have this effect in keratinocytes. (5) When added to the culture medium, nonlipoprotein cholesterol produced no effect on cholesterol synthesis in keratinocytes, whereas fibroblasts showed a marked suppression of this synthesis. The addition of 25-hydroxycholesterol to the culture medium led to a strong suppression of cholesterol synthesis in both fibroblasts and keratinocytes. These findings suggest that in both cell types the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase activity can be suppressed by a sterol delivered to the cell in artificial nonlipoprotein form. (6) The amount of [125I]-LDL bound specifically to the cell membrane receptor and particularly the amount internalized and degraded by the cells is much lower in keratinocytes than in fibroblasts, as shown biochemically. In the ultrastructural studies no binding of LDL to keratinocytes was observed.