Lipoprotein disposition by the liver: A concerted action of various cell types

Abstract

Recent studies have indicated that the liver is the principal organ for the catabolism of lipoproteins. The liver is however not a homogeneous tissue (Van Berkel 1982) and consists of parenchymal cells (contributing 92.5% to total liver protein), endothelial cells (contributing 3.3%), Kupffer cells (2.5%) and fat-storing cells (1.7%). The present research is focussed upon a determination of the relative importance of the various cell types in exerting the integral liver function. Procedures were developed to isolate from one liver all the various cell types (Van Berkel et al. 1985). A cell isolation procedure performed at a low temperature (at 8° C) allows a quantitative determination of the in vivo uptake of radio-labelled ligand because during cell isolation no degradation or release of cell-associated radioactivity occurs (Nagelkerke et al. 1983). Furthermore, receptors are preserved during cell isolation enabling in vitro studies on receptor specificity and receptor-dependent processing of lipoproteins.