Identification and characterization of rat serum lipoprotein subclasses. Isolation by chromatography on agarose columns and sequential immunoprecipitation.

Lipoproteins, present in serum of chow-fed rats, were fractionated according to size by chromatography of serum on 6% agarose columns. The distributions of apolipoprotein (apo) A-I, E, and A-IV within the high density lipoprotein (HDL) size range (i.e., lipoprotein complexes smaller than low density lipoproteins) showed the existence of lipoprotein subclasses with different size and chemical composition. Sequential immunoprecipitations were performed on these fractions obtained by agarose column chromatography, using specific antisera against apoA-I, apoE, and apoA-IV. The resulting precipitates and supernatants were analyzed for cholesteryl esters, unesterified cholesterol, phospholipids, triglycerides, and specific lipoproteins. The following conclusions were drawn from these experiments. Sixty-three +/- 3% of apoE in the total HDL size range is present on a large particle (mol wt 750,000). This lipoprotein contains apoE as its sole protein constituent and is called LpE. Thirty-nine +/- 4% of the cholesterol found in the HDL size range is present in this fraction. The cholesterol:phospholipid ratio is 1:1.1. Sixty-nine +/- 8% of apoA-I in the total HDL size range is present on a smaller particle (mol wt 250,000). This apoA-I-HDL has apoA-I as its major protein component and possibly contains minor amounts of C apoproteins and A-II, but neither apoE nor apoA-IV. It contains 39 +/- 8% of the total cholesterol found in the HDL size range and the cholesterol:phospholipid ratio is 1:1.6.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)