Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Metabolism of HDL



Synthesis and secretion of nascent DHL to blood.
·        It is produced mainly by liver and partly by intestinal cells.
·        Nascent HDL is a small discoidal phospholipid bilayer with free cholesterol, apo A, apo C and apo E.
2. Maturation of HDL in blood.
·        Nascent HDL binds with specific receptor present on cell membrane of peripheral tissues.
·        Free cholesterol efflux from peripheral cells to nascent HDL down the concentration gradient.
·        On coming to HDL free cholesterol is immediately converted to cholesterol ester by lecithin cholesterol acyl transferase and thereby free cholesterol concentration of HDL remains low to facilitate cholesterol efflux from tissues.
·        Thus nascent HDL gradually becomes rich in CE and converted to spherical HDL3.
3. Further modification of HDL3 & synthesis of HDL3.
·        HDL3 continues uptake of cholesterol from peripheral cells.
·        Subsequently HDL3 transfer part of its CE to other circulating apo B containing lipoproteins in exchange of TAG and free cholesterol from them. This exchange is mediated by cholesterol ester transfer protein.
·        At this point HDL3 gets even larger and become HDL2.
4. Clearance of mature HDL.
·        HDl2 goes to liver and binds with hepatocytes where HDL off loads cholesterol.
·        From hepatocytes offloaded cholesterol is disposed subsequently by three mechanisms.
o   Excretion with bile as free cholesterol
o   Conversion to bile acid and then excretion with bile
o   Repackaged into VLDL and then secretion into blood.
5. Some of the HDL2 after having their cholesterol off loaded is subjected to hepatic lipase present in hepatic sinusoidal endothelium. HL hydrolyzes the TAG and phospholipid of HDL2 and converts them again into HDL3 particles. Later on these particles join with the newly formed nascent hepatic HDL and return to plasma to participate in the next cycle of cholesterol extraction from peripheral tissues. This interchange of HDL2 and HDL3 is known as HDL cycle.

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