A new role for the low density lipoprotein receptor.

It is well established that the low density lipoprotein (LDL) pathway functions to maintain a constant concentration of cellular cholesterol, but LDL effects that are unrelated to cholesterol metabolism have not been studied in great detail. In the present investigation we demonstrate that the LDL receptor pathway regulates cellular levels of free arachidonic acid (AA) and hence prostaglandin (PG) synthesis. We used platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF)-stimulated fibroblasts as a model system to investigate mechanism of LDL-dependent PG synthesis. PDGF-stimulated but not quiescent cells formed radiolabelled prostacyclin (PGI2) and PGE2 upon incubation with LDL that had been reconstituted with cholesteryl-(1-14C)-arachidonate (rec-LDL), while fibroblasts from patients that are afflicted with the LDL receptor negative phenotype of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) failed to synthesize significant amounts of PGs. Furthermore cells that had been preincubated with chloroquine or an anti LDL receptor antibody, that prevents binding of LDL to its receptor, did not produce significant amounts of PGs upon incubation with rec-LDL. Moreover incubation of PDGF-stimulated cells with LDL or AA led to a time and concentration-dependent inactivation of PGH synthase, the rate limiting enzyme of PG synthesis. When taken together our results establish a new role of the classical LDL receptor pathway of Brown and Goldstein by demonstrating that LDL provides AA to fibroblasts for eicosanoid formation and that LDL has a profound inhibitory effect on the key enzyme of PG synthesis, the PGH synthase.