Composition and properties of very low density lipoproteins secreted by the perfused rat liver and subfractionated by affinity chromatography

Abstract

Very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) were isolated from the perfusate of rat livers infused with a complex of oleic acid bound to bovine serum albumin. Very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) secretion, bile flow, histopathology, and transmission electron microscopy indicated that secretory functions but not morphologic integrity of the livers were maintained during the procedure. Plasma VLDL and liver perfusate VLDL did not have similar size distribution. VLDL isolated from recycling perfusate and single pass perfusate were also subfractionated with concanavalin A-Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography. Three subfractions were eluted sequentially from the perfusate VLDL: a non-adherent fraction A and two adherent fractions B and C. The size of these VLDL, determined after negative staining and examination by transmission electron microscopy, was significantly decreased by affinity chromatography. VLDL in fractions A, B and C were spherical and had diameters of 935 ± 17, 881 ± 34 and 415 ± 30 A ̊ respectively. Fraction A, which did not adhere to the column, contained 65% of the lipid applied to the column. The carbohydrate composition of fraction A VLDL was 11.2 ± 0.6% fucose, 14.7 ± 1.2% galactose, 43.7 ± 2.3% N-acetylglucosamine, and 30.5 ± 1.9% sialic acid. Sugars such as glucose and mannose, which bind to concanavalin A, were not detected. In contrast, VLDL fractions B and C, which adhered to the column, contained both glucose (17.7 and 2.5%) and mannose (5.8 and 8.3%) as well as the other sugars present in VLDL fraction A. Sodium dodecyl sulfate gradient gel electrophoresis revealed that the affinity column procedure clearly altered the apolipoprotein patterns of the applied VLDL, thereby producing abnormal fractions B and C. Fractions B and C also differed from unfractionated VLDL and fraction A VLDL in lipid composition, in surface/interior core lipid ratio, and in fatty acid composition of the interior core lipids, primarily triacylglycerols. The steady-state anisotropy, the limiting anisotropy and the lipid order parameter of fluorescence probe molecules 1,6-diphenyl-1,3,5-hexatriene and trans-parinaric acid incorporated into the VLDL were of the following order: fraction B > fraction A > fraction C. These results are consistent with the interpretation that concanavalin A-Sepharose 4B affinity chromatography may artificially produce a series of VLDL subfractions whose composition and structural properties do not resemble those of native VLDL.