Involvement of cholesterol efflux pathway in the control of cardiomyocytes cholesterol homeostasis

• Published in: Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology Vol. 53; no. 2; pp. 196 - 205
• Main Authors: Reboulleau, Anne, Robert, Véronique, Vedie, Benoît, Doublet, Aline, Grynberg, Alain, Paul, Jean-Louis, Fournier, Natalie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Elsevier Ltd 01-08-2012
• Subjects: Animals; ATP Binding Cassette Transporter 1; ATP binding cassette transporter A1; ATP binding cassette transporter G1; ATP Binding Cassette Transporter, Sub-Family G, Member 1; ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters - genetics; ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters - metabolism; Biological Transport - drug effects; Cardiomyocytes; Cardiovascular; Cells, Cultured; Cholesterol - metabolism; Cholesterol efflux; Cholesterol homeostasis; Cholesterol, LDL - metabolism; Homeostasis - drug effects; Humans; Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors - pharmacology; Myocytes, Cardiac - drug effects; Myocytes, Cardiac - metabolism; Pravastatin - pharmacology; Rats; Rats, Wistar; Signal Transduction - drug effects; Statin; ABCA1; apo; apolipoprotein; CE; ATP binding cassette transporter A1; Cardiomyocytes; free cholesterol; Statin; liver X receptor/retinoid X receptor; ATP binding cassette transporter G1; cholesteryl esters; FC; LXR/RXR; ABCG1; Cholesterol homeostasis; Cholesterol efflux
• ISSN: 0022-2828; 1095-8584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2012.05.015

Abstract Although cholesterol-rich microdomains are highly involved in the functions of cardiomyocytes, the cholesterol homeostasis is largely unknown in these cells. We developed experimental procedures to assess cholesterol synthesis, cholesterol masses and cholesterol efflux from primary cultures of cardiac myocytes obtained from 2 to 4 days old Wistar rats. We first observed that cardiomyocytes poorly internalized exogenously supplied native or modified LDL and that free cholesterol (FC) efflux to free apolipoprotein AI (apo AI) and to HDL was mediated by ATP binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) and likely by ATP binding cassette transporter G1 (ABCG1), respectively, which are both upregulated by liver X receptor/retinoid X receptor (LXR/RXR) activation. We then investigated the consequences of cholesterol synthesis inhibition on cholesterol homeostasis using an HMGCoA reductase inhibitor (pravastatin, 90% effective concentration (EC90): 0.11 mM, 18 h). We observed no impact of cholesterol synthesis inhibition on the FC or cholesteryl ester (CE) masses. Consistently with no FC mass changes, pravastatin treatment had no notable impact on LDL receptors mRNA expression or on the capacity of cardiomyocytes to uptake radiolabeled LDL. Conversely, pravastatin treatment induced a significant decrease of cholesterol efflux to both apo AI and HDL whereas the passive aqueous diffusion remained unchanged. The cholesterol efflux pathway reductions induced by cholesterol synthesis inhibition were not caused by a reduction of ABC transporter expression (mRNA or protein). These results show that cardiac myocytes down-regulate active cholesterol efflux processes when endogenous cholesterol synthesis is inhibited, allowing them to preserve cholesterol homeostasis.