EFFECT OF DIETARY-LIPID PEROXIDES ON METABOLISM OF SERUM CHYLOMICRONS IN RATS

We have found that in rats the peroxide content of chylomicrons (CM) is determined by the lipid peroxide concentration in the diet, indicating that dietary lipid peroxides are incorporated into the lymph CM. Moreover, these incorporated lipid peroxides influence the normal CM metabolism. When radiolabeled CM were injected into rats, there was no difference in the initial plasma removal between CM prepared from oil with low peroxide content (control CM) and CM prepared from oil with high peroxide content (oxidized CM). However, the tissue distribution of the labels indicated that the hepatic uptake of CM decreased with increasing lipid peroxide content of CM. At 10 min after injection of CM, liver uptake of cholesterol label was 48.39 +/- 3.08% for control CM and 31.41 +/- 10.73% for oxidized CM. Vitamin E enrichment of control CM increased their hepatic uptake to 61.07 +/- 0.83%. Additionally, binding of oxidized CM to the heart endothelium increased from 2.55 to 3.60% compared with binding of control CM. When the hydrolysis of control and oxidized CM by endothelial lipoprotein lipase (LPL) was tested in a heart perfusion system, we found that after 30 min, 56.51 +/-5.81% of control and 76.82 +/- 1.75% of oxidized CM were not hydrolyzed and remained in the perfusate. Thus our results indicate that the altered metabolism of oxidized CM may be related to a reduced hydrolysis rate by endothelial LPL.