Hepatic vitamin A fat-storage cells and the metabolism of chylomicron cholesterol.

These experiments were designed to test the hypothesis that the vitamin A fat-storage cell removes chylomicron remnant cholesterol from hepatic portal venous blood; A modified Ficoll density gradient ultracentrifugation procedure was used to isolate from rat liver cellular fractions that were enriched in vitamin A. In rats fed a normal diet and in rats fed excess vitamin A isolated hepatocytes were fractionated 15 min after the intravenous injection of chylomicrons labelled in vivo with radioactive cholesterol. The results showed that cholesterol radioactivity was not concentrated in the vitamin A enriched cellular fractions, so it was concluded that the vitamin A fat-storage cell is not implicated in clearance of chylomicron remnants by the liver.