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J. Biol. Chem., Vol. 279, Issue 23, 24355-24361, June 4, 2004
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From the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Arterial wall sphingomyelinase (SMase) has been proposed to be involved in atherogenesis. SMase modification of lipoproteins has been shown to occur in atherosclerotic lesions and to facilitate their uptake by macrophages and foam cell formation. To investigate the mechanism of macrophage uptake enhanced by SMase, we prepared lipid emulsions containing sphingomyelin (SM) or ceramide (CER) as model particles of lipoproteins. SMase remarkably increased the uptake of SM-containing emulsions by J774 macrophages without apolipoproteins. The emulsion uptake was negatively correlated with the degree of particle aggregation by pretreatment with SMase, whereas the uptake of CER-containing emulsions was significantly larger than SM-containing emulsions, indicating that enhancement of uptake is due to the generation of CER molecules in particles but not to the aggregation by SMase. Heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) and low density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP) were crucial for CER-enhanced emulsion uptake, because heparin or lactoferrin inhibited the emulsion uptake. Confocal microscopy also showed that SMase promoted both binding and internalization of emulsions by J774 macrophages, which were almost abolished by lactoferrin. Apolipoprotein E further increased the uptake of CER-containing emulsions compared with SM-containing emulsions. These findings suggest the generation of CER in lipoproteins by SMase facilitates the macrophage uptake via HSPG and LRP pathways and plays a crucial role in foam cell formation. Thus, CER may act as an important atherogenic molecule.
Received for publication, February 24, 2004 , and in revised form, March 22, 2004.
* This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-aid for Scientific Research 12470489 from Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, a grant from Yamada Science Foundation, and 21st Century COE Program "Knowledge Information Infrastructure for Genome Science." The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked "advertisement" in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: 81-75-753-4555; Fax: 81-75-753-4601; E-mail: handatsr{at}pharm.kyoto-u.ac.jp.
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