Degradation by cultured fibroblasts and macrophages of unmodified and 1,2-cyclohexanedione-modified low-density lipoprotein from normal and homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemic subjects.

Monolayer cultures of human skin fibroblasts and monocyte-derived macrophages were used to examine the effect of cyclohexane-1,2-dione modification on the proteolytic degradation of 125I-labelled low-density lipoprotein (LDL) from normal subjects (NLDL) and homozygous familial hypercholesterolaemic subjects (FHLDL). Normal fibroblasts, pre-incubated in lipoprotein-deficient serum, and macrophages, pre-incubated in whole serum, exhibited both saturable and non-saturable degradation of LDL. In fibroblasts, the saturable receptor-mediated degradation of FHLDL was similar to that of NLDL and was abolished if the lipoproteins were modified with cyclohexanedione. The rate of non-saturable degradation of FHLDL was at least 3-fold higher than that of NLDL and each was decreased by approx. 60% after modification. In macrophages, saturable degradation was decreased but not abolished by modification. The apparent affinity for unmodified LDL was lower than that of the fibroblast receptor and was greater for NLDL than for FHLDL. Non-saturable degradation of FHLDL by macrophages was only slightly higher than that of NLDL. Modification with cyclohexanedione decreased the rate of non-saturable degradation of NLDL by 30%, but increased that of FHLDL by 75%. These experiments show differences between the degradation of 125I-labelled NLDL and FHLDL. They suggest that macrophages can degrade LDL by a saturable process with different properties from that mediated by the fibroblast receptor and that, in vitro, the rate of degradation of the modified LDL is not the same as the rate of non-receptor-mediated degradation of unmodified LDL.