Study of soluble lipoprotein in rat liver mitochondria

Lipophilic proteins of mitochondria from microaerobic and aerobic continuous cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Products of the mitochondrial protein-synthesizing system have been labeled in vivo in the presence of cycloheximide in microaerobic cells and in cells from glucose-limited and glucose-repressed aerobic continuous cultures of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Lipophilic proteins were extracted from labeled mitochondrial membranes with aqueous methanol and neutral and acidic chloroform-methanol solvents. In glucose-limited aerobic and microaerobic cells, about half of the total mitochondrial products were soluble in organic solvents; in contrast, almost all of the labeled products were extracted from glucose-repressed mitochondria. Only trace amounts of labeled product were formed in mitochondrial membranes of a petite mutant. Lipophilic proteins were examined by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under dissociating conditions. Most of the label was associated with components of apparent molecular weights 12,000, 14,000 and 16,000. The relative proportions of these species in mitochondrial membranes are dependent on the concentrations of oxygen and glucose in which the cells are grown.

Involvement of binding lipoproteins in the absorption and transport of alpha-tocopherol in the rat

1. Specific lipoproteins binding alpha-tocopherol but not its known metabolites have been isolated and identified from cytosol of rat intestinal mucosa and from serum. 2. A timestudy of the appearance of the orally administered alpha-[(3)H]tocopherol with these lipoproteins indicates that very-low-density lipoprotein of serum acts as a carrier of the vitamin. 3. The involvement of the mucosal lipoprotein in the absorption of the vitamin from the intestine has been inferred from observations on the amounts of alpha-tocopherol in serum of orotic acid-fed rats where release of lipoproteins from the liver to serum is completely inhibited. A considerable decrease in the association of alpha-tocopherol with serum very-low-density lipoprotein under this condition is interpreted to mean that serum lipoproteins are limiting factors for the transport of the vitamin across the intestine and that this is possibly effected by exchange of alpha-tocopherol between serum very-low-density lipoprotein and mucosal lipoprotein.