Hypoxic effects on cholesterol metabolism of cultured rat aortic and brain microvascular endothelial cells, and aortic vascular smooth muscle cells.

We investigated hypoxic effects on cholesterol metabolism in cultured brain microvascular endothelial cells (BEC), aortic endothelial cells (AEC) and aortic vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) from rat. In control conditions, acid lipase activities in BEC and AEC were higher than that in VSMC. Acyl-Coenzyme A: cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT) activities in control cells of BEC and AEC were lower than that of VSMC. Hypoxic treatment caused decreased acid lipase activity. ACAT activity decreased in VSMC. High pressure lipid chromatography (HPLC) study showed that hypoxia caused decreased contents of cholesterol and cholesteryl esters especially in AEC. We suggested that there is different cholesterol metabolism in the hypoxic treatment among endothelial cells and smooth muscle cells.