| 1. |
- Mahmood, Dana, 1965-
(författare)
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Lipoprotein lipase activity is reduced in dialysis patients. Studies on possible causal factors.
- 2012
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Cardiovascular disease is a major cause of mortality and morbidity in patients on chronic haemodialysis (HD). One main contributing factor is renal dyslipidaemia, characterized by an impaired catabolism of triglyceride (TG)-rich lipoproteins with accumulation of atherogenic remnant particles. The enzyme lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is a key molecule in the lipolysis of TG-rich lipoproteins into free fatty acids. The activity of LPL is reduced in HD-patients. This study was performed to elucidate various conditions and factors that may have an impact on LPL-related lipid metabolism.I. The functional pool of LPL is located at the vascular surface. The enzyme is released by heparin and low molecular weight heparins (LMWH) into the circulating blood and extracted and degraded by the liver. Heparin and LMWH are used for anticoagulation during HD to avoid clotting in the extracorporeal devices. This raises a concern that the LPL system may become exhausted by repeated administration of LMWH in patients on HD. In a randomized cross over designed study twenty patients on chronic HD were switched from a primed infusion of heparin to a single bolus of LMWH (tinzaparin). The LPL activity in blood was higher on HD with LMWH at 40 minutes but lower at 180 minutes compared to HD with heparin. These values did not change during the 6-month study period. With heparin a significant TG reduction was found at 40 minutes and a significantly higher TG value at 180 and 210 minutes than at start. TG was higher during the HD-session with tinzaparin than with heparin. Our data demonstrate that repeated HD with heparin or with LMWH does not exhaust the LPL-system in the long term but does disturb the LPL system and TG metabolism during every HD session. II. In this study HD patients were compared with patients on peritoneal dialysis (PD) in a case control fashion. PD patients showed the same reaction of the LPL system to LMWH as HD patients. This confirmed that both HD and PD patients had the same, reduced, heparin-releasable LPL pool. The main difference was that in PD patients the TG continued to be cleared effectively even at 180 minutes after the bolus of LMWH injection. This may be due to a slower removal of the released LPL by the liver in PD patients. III. In recent years, citrate (Citrasate) in the dialysate has been used in Sweden as a local anticoagulant for chronic HD. We performed a randomized cross over study that included 23 patients (16 men and 7 women) to investigate if citrate in the dialysate is safe and efficient enough as anticoagulant. The study showed that citrate anticoagulation eliminated the need of heparin or LMWH as anticoagulation for HD in half of the patients. However, individual optimization of doses of anticoagulants used together with citrate have to be made.IV. Recently angiopoietin-like proteins, ANGPTL3 and 4 have emerged as important modulators of lipid metabolism as potent inhibitors of LPL. Twenty-three patients on chronic HD and 23 healthy persons were included as case and controls to investigate the levels of these proteins in plasma of HD-patients and to evaluate if HD may alter these levels. The data showed that plasma levels of ANGPTL3 and 4 were increased in patients with kidney disease compared to controls. This may lead to inactivation of LPL. High flux-HD, but not low flux-HD, reduced the levels of ANGPTL4, while the levels of ANGPTL3 were not significantly influenced. On HD with local citrate as anticoagulant, no LPL activity was released into plasma during dialysis in contrast to the massive release of LPL with heparin (LMWH). Citrate HD was not associated with a significant drop in plasma TG at 40 minutes, while both HD with citrate and heparin resulted in significantly increased TG levels at 180 minutes compared to the start values.Conclusions: Citrate as a local anticoagulant during haemodialysis eliminates the need of heparin or LMWH in about half of the HD patients. Citrate does not induce release of LPL from its endothelial binding sites. We have shown that although HD with heparin causes release of the endothelial pool of LPL during each dialysis session, the basal pool is similarly low in PD patients that do not receive heparin. This indicates that the LPL pool is lowered as a consequence of the uraemia, per se. One explanation could be the increased levels of ANGPTL3 and 4. HD with high flux filters can temporarily lower the levels of ANGPTL4. Further studies are, however, needed to understand why LPL activity is low in patients with kidney disease.
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| 2. |
- Nicoll, Rachel, 1955-
(författare)
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Insights into the relationship between coronary calcification and atherosclerosis risk factors
- 2016
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Introduction Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common cause of death in Europe and North America and early detection of atherosclerosis is a clinical priority. Diagnosis of CAD remains conventional angiography, although recent technology has introduced non-invasive imaging of coronary arteries using computed tomographic coronary angiography (CTCA), which enables the detection and quantification of coronary artery calcification (CAC). CAC forms within the arterial wall and is usually found in or adjacent to atherosclerotic plaques and is consequently known as sub-clinical atherosclerosis. The conventional cardiovascular (CV) risk factors used to quantify the estimated 10-year coronary event risk comprise dyslipidaemia, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, obesity, smoking and family history of CAD. Nevertheless, their relationship with significant (>50%) stenosis, their interaction with the CAC score and their predictive ability for CAC presence and extent has not been fully determined in symptomatic patients. Methods For Papers 1-4 we took patients from the Euro-CCAD cohort, an international study established in 2009 in Umeå, Sweden. The study data gave us the CAC score and the CV risk factor profile in 6309 patients, together with angiography results for a reduced cohort of 5515 patients. In Papers 1 and 2 we assessed the risk factors for significant stenosis, including CAC as a risk factor. Paper 2 carried out this analysis by geographical region: Europe vs USA and northern vs southern Europe. Paper 3 investigated the CV risk factors for CAC presence, stratified by age and gender, while Paper 4 assessed the CV risk factors for CAC extent, stratified by gender. In paper 5 we carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of all studies of the risk factor predictors of CAC presence, extent and progression in symptomatic patients. From a total of 884 studies, we identified 10 which fitted our inclusion criteria, providing us with a total of 15,769 symptomatic patients. All 10 were entered in the systematic review and 7 were also eligible for the meta-analysis. ResultsPaper 1: Among risk factors alone, the most powerful predictors of significant coronary stenosis were male gender followed by diabetes, smoking, hypercholesterolaemia, hypertension, family history of CAD and age; only obesity was not predictive. When including the log transformed CAC score as a risk factor, this proved the most powerful predictor of >50% stenosis, but hypercholesterolaemia and hypertension lost their predictive ability. The conventional risk factors alone were 70% accurate in predicting significant stenosis, the log transformed CAC score alone was 82% accurate but the combination was 84% accurate and improved both sensitivity and specificity. Paper 2: Despite some striking differences in profiles between Europe and the USA, the most important risk factors for >50% stenosis in both groups were male gender followed by diabetes. When the log CAC score was included as a risk factor, it became by far the most important predictor of >50% stenosis in both continents, followed by male gender. In the northern vs southern Europe comparison the result was similar, with the log CAC score being the most important predictor of >50% stenosis in both regions, followed by male gender. Paper 3: Independent predictors of CAC presence in males and females were age, dyslipidaemia, hypertension, diabetes and smoking, with the addition of family history of CAD in males; obesity was not predictive in either gender. The most important predictors of CAC presence in males were dyslipidaemia and diabetes, while among females the most important predictors of CAC presence were diabetes followed by smoking. When analysed by age groups, in both males and females aged <70 years, diabetes, hypertension and dyslipidaemia were predictive, with diabetes being the strongest; in females aged <70 years, smoking was also predictive. Among those aged ≥70 years, the results are completely different, with only dyslipidaemia being predictive in males but smoking and diabetes were predictive in females. Paper 4: In the total cohort, age, male gender, diabetes, obesity, family history of CAD and number of risk factors predicted an increasing CAC score, with the most important being male gender and diabetes. In males, hypertension and dyslipidaemia were also predictive, although diabetes was the most important predictor. Diabetes was similarly the most important risk factor in females, followed by age and number of risk factors. Among patients with CAC, hypertension, dyslipidaemia and diabetes predicted CAC extent in both males and females, with diabetes being the strongest predictor in males followed by dyslipidaemia, while diabetes was also the strongest predictor in females, followed by hypertension. Quantile regression confirmed the consistent predictive ability of diabetes. Paper 5: In the systematic review, age was strongly predictive of both CAC presence and extent but not of CAC progression. The results for CAC presence were overwhelmed by data from one study of almost 10,000 patients, which found that white ethnicity, diabetes, hypertension and obesity were predictive of CAC presence but not male gender, dyslipidaemia, family history or smoking. With respect to CAC extent, only male gender and hypertension were clearly predictive, while in the one study of CAC progression, only diabetes and hypertension were predictive. In the meta-analysis, hypertension followed by male gender, diabetes and age were predictive of CAC presence, while for CAC extent mild-moderate CAC was predicted by hypertension alone, whereas severe CAC was predicted by hypertension followed by diabetes. ConclusionOur investigation of the Euro-CCAD cohort showed that the CAC score is far more predictive of significant stenosis than risk factors alone, followed by male gender and diabetes, and there was little benefit to risk factor assessment over and above the CAC score for >50% stenosis prediction. Regional variations made little difference to this result. Independent predictors of CAC presence were dyslipidaemia and diabetes in males and diabetes followed by smoking in females. The risk factor predictors alter at age 70. The most important risk factor predictors of CAC extent were male gender and diabetes; when analysed by gender, diabetes was the most important in both males and females. Our studies have consistently shown the strong predictive ability of male gender in the total cohort and diabetes in males and females and this is reflected in the meta-analysis, which also found hypertension to be independently predictive. Interestingly, dyslipidaemia does not appear to be a strong risk factor.
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| 3. |
- Larsson, Mikael, 1978-
(författare)
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Endogenous and exogenous factors affecting lipoprotein lipase activity
- 2014
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Individuals with high levels of plasma triglycerides are at high risk to develop cardiovascular disease (CVD), currently one of the major causes of death worldwide. Recent epidemiological studies show that loss-of-function mutations in the APOC3 gene lower plasma triglyceride levels and reduce the incidence of coronary artery disease. The APOC3 gene encodes for apolipoprotein (APO) C3, known as an inhibitor of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) activity. Similarly, a common gain-of-function mutation in the LPL gene is associated with reduced risk for CVD.LPL is central for the metabolism of lipids in blood. The enzyme acts at the endothelial surface of the capillary bed where it hydrolyzes triglycerides in circulating triglyceride-rich lipoproteins (TRLs) and thereby allows uptake of fatty acids in adjacent tissues. LPL activity has to be rapidly modulated to adapt to the metabolic demands of different tissues. The current view is that LPL is constitutively expressed and that the rapid modulation of the enzymatic activity occurs by some different controller proteins. Angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) is one of the main candidates for control of LPL activity. ANGPTL4 causes irreversible inactivation through dissociation of the active LPL dimer to inactive monomers. Other proteins that have effects on LPL activity are the APOCs which are surface components of the substrate TRLs. APOC2 is a well-known LPL co-factor, whereas APOC1 and APOC3 independently inhibit LPL activity.Given the important role of LPL for triglyceride homeostasis in blood, the aim of this thesis was to find small molecules that could increase LPL activity and serve as lead compounds in future drug discovery efforts. Another aim was to investigate the molecular mechanisms for how APOC1 and APOC3 inhibit LPL activity.Using a small molecule screening library we have identified small molecules that can protect LPL from inactivation by ANGPTL4 during incubations in vitro. Following a structure-activity relationship study we have synthesized lead compounds that more efficiently protect LPL from inactivation by ANGPTL4 in vitro and also have dramatic triglyceride-lowering properties in vivo. In a separate study we show that low concentrations of fatty acids possess the ability to prevent inactivation of LPL by ANGPTL4 under in vitro conditions.With regard to APOC1 and APOC3 we demonstrate that when bound to TRLs, these apolipoproteins prevent binding of LPL to the lipid/water interface. This results in decreased lipolysis and in an increased susceptibility of LPL to inactivation by ANGPTL4. We demonstrate that hydrophobic amino acid residues that are centrally located in the APOC3 molecule are critical for attachment of this protein to lipid emulsion particles and consequently for inhibition of LPL activity.In summary, this work has identified a lead compound that protects LPL from inactivation by ANGPTL4 in vitro and lowers triglycerides in vivo. In addition, we propose a molecular mechanism for inhibition of LPL activity by APOC1 and APOC3.
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| 4. |
- Nyrén, Rakel, 1986-
(författare)
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Localization of lipoprotein lipase in mouse pancreas, kidney and placenta : impact of metabolic disturbances on cellular distribution and activity regulation
- 2020
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is the key enzyme for metabolism of triglycerides in plasma lipoproteins. In recent years many new facts about the enzyme and its regulation have been uncovered. The endothelial membrane protein GPIHBP1 translocates LPL through endothelial cells and holds the enzyme in place at the luminal side of the capillary endothelium. Some of the angiopoietin-like proteins (ANGPTLs) bind to LPL and are responsible for tissue-specific regulation of the enzyme’s catalytic activity. Most studies in the past have focused on LPL in adipose and muscle tissues. LPL is also present in several other tissues, but the localization and function of LPL at these sites have not been fully elucidated.One aim of the present thesis was to develop a protocol for immunolocalization of LPL in mouse tissues. In pancreas, the enzyme was localized to capillaries of the exocrine tissue, together with GPIHBP1, but also inside α- and β-cells. LPL in β-cells was absent in leptin-deficient ob/ob mice, but appeared after treatment with leptin. In kidney, LPL was mostly present within the proximal tubular cells of the nephron. In fed animals, LPL was also seen in intertubular vessels together with GPIHBP1. A LPL knock-out mouse model, MCKL0, was used to validate the specificity of our immuno-protocol. Kidneys from these mice showed no or very little staining for LPL. In mouse placenta, LPL was mostly found in capillaries of the labyrinth zone, where the exchange between fetal and maternal blood occurs.A second aim was to gain better understanding for when, how and why LPL activity is regulated in mouse kidneys, and how obesity induced by high-fat diet (HFD) affects the LPL system. LPL activity in kidneys was regulated by ANGPTL4 in a similar manner as LPL in white adipose tissue, but in contrast to adipose tissue, the kidney LPL did not contribute to the uptake of fatty acids from chylomicron triglycerides. We found that obesity and insulin resistance, induced by long-term feeding of HFD, abolished the nutritional regulation of LPL activity in kidneys of male, but not of female, mice. To directly study the uptake of energy substrates in mouse kidneys, we developed a protocol for measurement of radiolabeled substrates in kidneys using PET/CT with the tracers [18F]FDG (a glucose analogue) and [18F]FTHA (a fatty acid analogue) injected to blood. There was an increase in uptake of both tracers in fasted male mice that had been on long-term HFD, compared to controls, as revealed by scanning of perfused organs, ex vivo, 3 hours after the injections.A third aim was to study LPL and the function of ANGPTL4 in pregnant mice and placentas. ANGPTL4 is known to increase in human plasma throughout pregnancy. As ANGPTL4 levels rise, triglyceride levels increase as well. We used mice that either lacked (Angptl4-/-) or overexpressed Angptl4 (Angptl4-tg+/-), and compared them to wild-type mice. Plasma triglycerides and VLDL levels increased during pregnancy both in wild-type and in Angptl4-/- mice. The lipid profile in Angptl4-tg+/- was high already before conception, and did not change. LPL activity in placenta was, however, similar in all genotypes. The increase in ANGPTL4 in maternal blood during pregnancy might originate from placenta, but Angptl4 expression was also increased in maternal liver and subcutaneous white adipose tissue. The pups from Angptl4-tg+/- had reduced birthweight compared to pups from wild-type and Angptl4-/- mice.In conclusion, the present thesis provides information on the localization and possible functions of LPL and some of its regulator proteins in mouse pancreas, kidney and placenta. New data on the regulation of LPL activity in mouse kidney, and the effects of HFD and obesity, is presented, as well as insights into the potential role of ANGPTL4 for control of plasma triglyceride levels and fetal growth during mouse pregnancy.
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| 5. |
- Sukonina, Valentina, 1971-
(författare)
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Angiopoietin-like protein 4 : an unfolding chaperone regulating lipoprotein lipase activity
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is the main enzyme hydrolyzing triglyceride-rich lipoproteins in plasma. Proteoglycan-bound LPL on the vascular endothelium represent the functional pool of active enzyme. LPL is regulated in a tissue specific manner according to metabolic demands. Rapid regulation of LPL activity is necessary to provide free fatty acids for storage or energy production. This regulatory mechanism appears to be post-translational and requires synthesis of other protein/proteins. Recently it was demonstrated that angiopoietin-like protein 4 (ANGPTL4) is involved in the metabolism of plasma triglycerides and that it is able to inhibit LPL activity in vitro. These properties were linked to the N-terminal coiled-coil domain of ANGPTL4 (ccd-ANGPTL4), but the mechanism for the inhibition was not known. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the molecular mechanism for inhibition of LPL by ccd-ANGPTL4, to characterize regions in ccd-ANGPTL4 that are important for inactivation of LPL and to study the role of ANGPTL4 for regulation of LPL in vivo. Binding of ccd-ANGPTL4 to LPL was demonstrated by several methods, including surface plasmon resonance. The interaction was transient and resulted in conversion of the enzyme from catalytically active dimers to inactive monomers with decreased affinity for heparin. We have shown that ANGPTL4 mRNA in rat adipose tissue turns over rapidly and that changes in the ANGPTL4 mRNA abundance were inversely correlated to LPL activity, both during the fed to fasted and the fasted to fed transitions. We conclude that ANGPTL4 is a fasting-induced controller of LPL in adipose tissue, acting extracellularly on the native conformation of LPL in an unusual fashion, like an unfolding molecular chaperone. Site directed mutagenesis was used to explore regions in ccd-ANGPTL4 important for inactivation of LPL, and for binding of ANGPTL4 to heparin. Others had shown that ccd-ANGPTL4 forms higher oligomers. Structure prediction analyses demonstrated that the coiled-coil domain of ccd-ANGPTL4 probably forms three consecutive α-helices with strong hydrophobic faces, and that there are clusters of positively charged residues both on the helices and in intervening sequences. We made replacements of hydrophobic residues, positively charged residues, cysteine residues and negatively charged residues in ccd-ANGPTL4. In addition, helix-breaking proline residues were introduced in all three helices. We found that hydrophobic residues are important for oligomer formation. The higher oligomers appeared to be stabilized by disulfide bonds, but cysteines are not crucial for oligomerization. Introduction of Pro-residues in the first and second helix prevented formation of higher oligomers and reduced the ability of ccd-ANGPTL4 to inactivate LPL. We found that negatively charged residues in ccd-ANGPTL4 are important for inactivation of LPL. A heparin binding site was localized in the C-terminal end of ccd-ANGPTL4 (amino acid residues 114-140). To investigate whether LPL is differently processed in different depots of adipose tissue we measured the levels of LPL mRNA, protein and activity in omental and subcutaneous adipose tissue in human subjects undergoing elective surgery. Our results show that, although the expression level of LPL was higher in subcutaneous adipose tissue, the specific LPL activity (ratio of activity over the LPL protein mass) was higher in omental adipose tissue. Interestingly, the levels of ANGPTL4 mRNA were lower in omental compared to subcutaneous adipose tissue in most of the studied subjects. This difference can possibly explain the higher specific activity of LPL in omental adipose tissue and indicated that ANGPTL4 is involved in regulation of LPL activity also in humans. LPL produced by macrophages in the artery wall promotes local accumulation of lipids in these cells, and thereby plays an important role in development of atherosclerosis. The known association between type 2 diabetes and atherosclerosis forwarded us to study production of LPL by THP-1 macrophages under hyperglycemic conditions and under treatment with a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta (PPARδ) agonist (GW501516). We found that LPL activity (but not LPL mass) produced by macrophages was decreased by GW501516. The loss of LPL activity coincided with increased level of ANGPTL4 mRNA, indicating that the agonist regulates LPL activity through expression of ANGPTL4. This effect was even more pronounced in cells grown under hyperglycemic conditions. Our data suggest that a suitable PPARδ agonist, like GW501516, may have protective effects against development of atherosclerosis in subjects with diabetes type 2.
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| 6. |
- Wu, Gengshu, 1963-
(författare)
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Lipoprotein lipase : mechanism for adaptation of activity to the nutritional state
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is an enzyme to hydrolyze triglycerides in lipoproteins and thereby make the fatty acids available for cellular metabolic reactions. Short-term fasting down-regulates LPL activity in adipose tissue. This regulation is through post-translational mechanism. The objective of this work was to investigate (1) The molecular mechansim for regulation of LPL activity in adipose tissue; (2) The basis for the tissue-specific regulation of LPL in adipose tissue, heart and skeletal muscle. LPL in adipose tissue can be found both inside (intracellular) and outside adipocytes (extracellular). Within adipocytes, neither LPL mass nor the distribution of LPL between active and inactive forms changed on fasting. Extracellular LPL mass also did not change significantly, but shifted from predominantly active to predominantly inactive. Activie, extracellular LPL was distributed in a similar way in the two nutritional states. The down-regulation during fasting is due to a decline of extracellular LPL activity. The up-regulation of LPL activity induced by re-feeding did not need new mRNA. The down-regulation of LPL activity induced by fasting did not occur when mRNA synthesis was inhibited. LPL activity in adipose tissue from fasted rats was fully restored by actinomycin. So fasting switches on a gene, whose product suppresses LPL activity. Similar results were also obtained in experiments on mice. When food was removed from young rats in the early morning, adipose tissue TNF-α activity increased and LPL activity decreased within six hours. There was a negative correlation between TNF-α and LPL activities. Pentoxifylline, that inhibits biosynthesis of TNF-α, almost abolished the rise of TNF-α and the decrease of LPL activity. Actinomycin D virtually abolished the response of LPL activity to fasting or exogenous TNF-α. This study suggests that fasting signals via TNF-α to a gene whose product causes a rapid shift of newly-synthesized LPL molecules towards an inactive form.
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| 7. |
- Kovrov, Oleg, 1990-
(författare)
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Regulation of Lipoprotein Lipase Activity : an In-vitro Study of a Complex and Dynamic System
- 2019
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The progress of human society outpaces our biological evolution, and this brings unexpected health problems. The industrial revolution brought up dramatic changes in nutrition and lifestyle – we are increasingly shifting towards a nutrient-rich Western-patterned diet and to a sedentary lifestyle. Unfortunately, our energy metabolism is not fully capable to adapt to these changes. The excess of nutrients has led to global epidemics in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. To battle this, medical research has focused on the metabolism of sugars and cholesterol, whereas the fate of triglycerides, the major dietary lipid, has received less attention. Recently it became clear that blood triglycerides are connected to the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. As a result, triglyceride metabolism became a focus of attention in both basic and clinical research.Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is the cornerstone of blood triglyceride metabolism. This means that LPL must be tightly regulated in response to the nutritional state of the body, and to the needs of particular tissues. LPL is produced and secreted by cells that store triglycerides or use them for generation of energy. After secretion, LPL stays attached to the capillary endothelium where it hydrolyses triglycerides from the triglyceride-rich lipoproteins. LPL is relatively unstable and the instability is a key property in its physiological regulation since transcriptional control of LPL does not respond to the metabolic changes fast enough. Instead, LPL is regulated by two groups of proteins – plasma apolipoproteins, which serve as activators or inhibitors of LPL, and angiopoietin-like (ANGPTL) proteins, which irreversibly inactivate LPL in the tissues which do not require triglycerides.One aim of my thesis was to study the effects of ANGPTL proteins on LPL structure and function. In papers I and II, using various biophysical and biochemical methods, we studied the effects of ANGPTL3, 4 and 8 on LPL structure and function. All data supported the concept that LPL is inactivated by dissociation of active dimers to monomers. Additionally, we describe the molecular basis for complex formation between ANGPTL3 and 8, as well as a novel complex between ANGPTL4 and 8 with unique properties. The other aim of my thesis was to perform an in-depth study of rate-limiting factors that control the activity of LPL in human plasma. In papers III and IV we study LPL activity using an isothermal titration calorimetry-based assay directly in plasma samples. We found that the normal variation in plasma levels of either ANGPTL proteins or apolipoproteins had no significant impact on LPL activity. Instead, the strongest determinant for LPL action was the size of the triglyceride-rich plasma lipoproteins.
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| 8. |
- Zhang, Liyan, 1964-
(författare)
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Lipoprotein lipase-unstable on purpose?
- 2007
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Lipoprotein lipase (LPL) is a central enzyme in lipid metabolism. It is a non-covalent, homodimeric and N-glycosylated protein, which is regulated in a tissue-specific manner and is dependent on an activator protein, apolipoprotein CII. Dissociation of active LPL dimers to monomers leads to loss of activity. This was previously found to be an important event in the rapid regulation of LPL in tissues. The mechanisms involved in the processing of LPL to active dimers, as well as in LPL inactivation through monomerization, were unknown. We have investigated the folding properties of the LPL protein, in particular the requirements for LPL to attain its active quaternary structure and to remain in the native conformation. On expression of LPL in insect cells we found that most of the LPL protein was synthesized in an inactive monomeric form. By co-expression of LPL with human molecular haperones, especially with calreticulin (CRT), the activity of LPL increased greatly, both in the cells and in the media. The effect of CRT on LPL activity was not due to increased levels of the LPL protein, but was due to an increased proportion of active dimeric LPL. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments showed direct interaction between LPL and CRT supporting the idea that this ER-based molecular chaperone supports the formation of active LPL dimers. We showed that, bis-ANS, the aromatic hydrophobic probe 1,1.-bis(aniline)-4,4.- bis(naphthalene)-8,8.disulfonate, can be used to obtain specific information about the interaction of LPL with lipid substrates and with apoCII. Bis-Ans was found to be a potent inhibitor of LPL activity, but apoCII prevented the inhibition. Our results suggest that bis-Ans binds to three exposed hydrophobic sites, of which one is at or close to the binding site(s) for apoCII. In studies of the mechanisms responsible for the spontaneous inactivation of LPL, we showed that active LPL is a dynamic dimer in which the subunits rapidly exchange partners. The rapid equilibrium between dimers and monomers exists even under conditions where LPL is relatively stable. This supports the idea that the dimer is in equilibrium with dimerization-competent, possibly active monomers. This dimerization-competent intermediate was also implicated in studies of the inactivation kinetics. The inactive LPL monomer was found to have a stable, defined conformation irrespective of how it was formed. The main differences in conformation between the inactive monomer and the active dimer were located in the middle part of the LPL subunit. Experiments with bis-Ans demonstrated that more hydrophobic regions were exposed in the inactive monomer, indicating a molten globule conformation. We concluded that the middle part of the LPL subunit is most likely engaged in the formation of the active LPL dimer. The dimerization-competent LPL monomer is a hypothetical conformational state, because it has not been possible to isolate it. To study complete refolding of LPL we used fully denatured LPL and were able to demonstrate that the recovery of LPL activity was about 40% when the denaturant was diluted by a buffer containing 20% human serum and 2M NaCl. Further studies identified calcium as the component in serum that was crucial for the reactivation of LPL. The refolding of LPL was shown to involve at least two steps, of which the first one was rapid and resulted in folded, but inactive monomers. The second step, from inactive monomers to active dimers, was slow and calcium-dependent. Also inactive monomers isolated from human tissue were able to recover activity under the influence of calcium. We proposed that calcium-dependent control of LPL dimerization might be involved in the normal post-translational regulation of LPL activity. In conclusion, LPL is a relatively unstable enzyme under physiological conditions due to its noncovalent dimeric structure. The energy barrier for folding to the active dimer is high and requires the presence of calcium ions and molecular chaperones to be overcome. The dimeric arrangement is probably essential to accomplish rapid down-regulation of LPL activity according to metabolic demand, e.g. in adipose tissue on fasting.
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