Immunodepletion experiments suggest that acyl-coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase-1 (ACAT-1) protein plays a major catalytic role in adult human liver, adrenal gland, macrophages, and kidney, but not in intestines.

The first acyl-coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) cDNA cloned and expressed in 1993 is designated as ACAT-1. In various human tissue homogenates, ACAT-1 protein is effectively solubilized with retention of enzymatic activity by the detergent CHAPS along with high salt. After using anti-ACAT-1 antibodies to quantitatively remove ACAT-1 protein from the solubilized enzyme, measuring the residual ACAT activity remaining in the immunodepleted supernatants allows us to assess the functional significance of ACAT-1 protein in various human tissues. The results showed that ACAT activity was immunodepleted 90% in liver (83% in hepatocytes), 98% in adrenal gland, 91% in macrophages, 80% in kidney, and 19% in intestines, suggesting that ACAT-1 protein plays a major catalytic role in all of the human tissue/cell homogenates examined except intestines. Intestinal ACAT activity is largely resistant to immunodepletion and is much more sensitive to inhibition by the ACAT inhibitor Dup 128 than liver ACAT activity.