Effects of Triton WR-1339 on lipoprotein lipolytic activity and lipid content of rat liver lysosomes.

The characteristics of lipoprotein lipolytic activity in lysosomes after the administration of Triton WR-1339 were studied, and the observed decrease in the density of the particles is discussed. The light mitochondrial fraction prepared from rat liver according to the method of De Duve et al. (Biochem. J. (1955) 60, 604) was used as a crude lysosomal fraction, in which acid phosphatase and lipoprotein lipase activities were concentrated. The lipoprotein lipolytic activity of lysosomes had a pH optimum of 4.0. The activity was strongly inhibited by Triton WR-1339 in vitro at low concentrations, while the acid lipase activity was almost unaffected, though relatively high concentration of the detergent significantly inhibited the latter activity. When Triton WR-1339 administered to rats (150 mg/100 g body weight), the activities of both the lipoprotein lipase and acid lipase of lysosomes from the treated rats decreased to one-third of those of control rats. Low-density and high-density lysosomes were partially purified from the light mitochondrial fraction from Triton WR-1339-treated and silver colloid-treated rats, respectively, by sucrose density gradient centrifugation. The low-density lysosomes (d = 1.00-1.13) from Triton WR-1339 administered rats had approximately 4 and 3 times higher contents of triglyceride and cholesterol, respectively, than the high-density lysosomes (d greater than 1.30) from silver colloid-treated rats. In view of these results and the fact that the density of Triton WR-1339 is quite high (at least d = 1.20), the decrease in density of hepatic lysosomes upon Triton WR-1339 administration cannot be due simply to incorporation of the detergent, and may rather be a result of incorporation and accumulation of some lipid(s) (possibly as lipoprotein) into lysosomes together with Triton WR-1339.