Structural and metabolic heterogeneity of plasma low density lipoproteins in nonhuman primates

To test the hypothesis that a variety of precursor particles secreted by the liver could result in heterogeneity of LDL products in plasma, the metabolic fate of selected radiolabeled hepatic lipoproteins evaluated was determined in vivo. The hepatic lipoproteins evaluated were isolated from liver perfusate and were triglyceride-rich VLDL (d < 1.006 or d < 1.017) and phospholipid-rich LDL (1.017 < d < 1.049 or 1.030 < d < 1.063). Radiolabeled autologous plasma LDL were injected into recipient animals together with the radiolabeled hepatic lipoproteins. Density gradient ultracentrifugation and gel filtration were used to characterize the distribution of radiolabeled lipoproteins in the plasma at selected times after injection. A variety of hepatic lipoproteins were precursors to lipoproteins that resembled plasma LDL. Between 22 to 80% of the injected dose of radiolabeled hepatic lipoprotein apo B-100 was converted to plasma LDL-like particles, regardless of the type of hepatic lipoprotein injected. A kinetic model was generated to describe the metabolic behavior of hepatic VLDL-derived and plasma LDL-derived apo B-100 radioactivity. Both models required multiple metabolic pools to fit the data. Hepatic VLDL-derived apo B-100 radioactivity was metabolized rapidly into various kinds of LDL subfractions. This rapid conversion of hepatic VLDL apo B-100 to LDL apo B-100 may be analogous to the portion of plasma VLDL that gets converted to LDL without passing through the delipidation cascade that has been described in humans and has been termed direct LDL production