The transfer of lipids between human α-lipoprotein and erythrocytes

Abstract

• 1.

  1. The transfer of palmitic acid and sterol between human α-lipoprotein and erythrocytes has been studied.

• 2.

  2. Human erythrocytes take up palmitic acid from α-lipoprotein until all binding sites are filled. The process is very much more rapid if the lipoprotein also extra cholesterol.

• 3.

  3. 38% of the endotenous unesterified sterol of human α-lipoprotein does not exchange with that of rat erythrocytes.

• 4.

  4. [¹⁴C]Cholesterol taken up by the lipoprotein after dispersion on Celite exchanges with that of human erythrocytes but it does not behave in exactly the same way as the endogenous sterol.

• 5.

  5. When α-lipoprotein is labelled with both cholesterol and palmitic acid and then incubated with human erythrocytes, each interferes with the transfer, to the cells, of the other.