Hepatic acyl-coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase activity is decreased in patients with cholesterol gallstones.

Altered hepatic cholesterol metabolism has been implicated in the etiology of cholesterol gallstones. This hypothesis has been examined by determining acyl-coenzyme A:cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) activity in liver biopsies from 31 cholesterol gallstone patients and 12 control subjects. Hepatic ACAT activity in gallstone patients was decreased to one-third that in controls (P less than 0.001). No differences in hepatic homogenate or microsomal free and total cholesterol concentrations were observed between the two groups. However, marked increases in free (107%) and total (98%) cholesterol concentrations were found in the cytosolic fraction of liver biopsies from gallstone patients. The total phospholipid concentration of the liver homogenate fraction was unchanged in both groups; however, the microsomal total phospholipid concentration was reduced by 17% (P less than 0.01) in gallstone samples compared with controls. This difference did not result in a significantly increased microsomal cholesterol/phospholipid ratio for the gallstone group (0.180 +/- 0.030) compared with the control group (0.169 +/- 0.042). These results show that hepatic ACAT activity is significantly decreased in cholesterol gallstone patients. These changes in ACAT activity in livers of patients with cholesterol gallstones are consistent with the known increase in the amount of free cholesterol secreted in the bile of these patients. Thus, the changes in ACAT activity may contribute to the pathogenesis of cholesterol gallstones.