Fibroblast growth factor-1 (FGF-1) is secreted by astrocytes and stimulates apolipoprotein E (apoE)-HDL biogenesis by an autocrine mechanism to help in recovery from brain injury. In apoE-deficient mouse astrocytes, FGF-1 stimulated cholesterol biosynthesis without enhancing its release, indicating a signaling pathway independent of apoE biosynthesis upregulation. SU5402, an inhibitor of FGF receptor, inhibited FGF-1-induced phosphorylation of MEK, ERK, and Akt, as well as all the apoE-HDL biogenesis-related events in rat astrocytes. LY294002, an inhibitor of phosphatidylinositide 3-OH kinase (PI3K) and of Akt phosphorylation, inhibited apoE-HDL secretion but not cholesterol biosynthesis, whereas U0126, an inhibitor of MEK and of ERK phosphorylation, inhibited cholesterol biosynthesis but not apoE-HDL secretion. Increase of apoE-mRNA by FGF-1 was not influenced by either inhibitor. When rat apoE/pcDNA3. his was transfected to transformed rat astrocyte GA-1 cells that otherwise do not synthesize apoE (GA-1/25), FGF-1 did not influence apoE-mRNA, but did increase the apoE secretion and Akt phosphorylation that were suppressed by LY294002. Lipid biosynthesis was increased by FGF-1 in GA-1/25 cells and suppressed by U0126. FGF-1 upregulates apoE-HDL biogenesis by three independent signaling pathways. The PI3K/Akt pathway upregulates secretion of apoE/apoE-HDL, the MEK/ERK pathway stimulates cholesterol biosynthesis, and an unknown pathway enhances apoE transcription.-Ito, J-i., Y. Nagayasu, K. Okumura-Noji, R. Lu, T. Nishida, Y. Miura, K. Asai, A. Kheirollah, S. Nakaya, and S. Yokoyama. Mechanism for FGF-1 to regulate biogenesis of apoE-HDL in astrocytes. J. Lipid Res. 2007Res. . 48: 2020Res. -2027.
Supplementary key words astrocytesNeuronal cells in the central nervous system (CNS), such as neurons, oligodendroglias, and astrocytes, all appear in unique shapes, with large cell surfaces, and accordingly contain large amounts of cholesterol. Cholesterol content in the CNS could thus account for 25-30% of total body cholesterol in humans (1, 2). Cholesterol plays many key roles in the CNS, including roles in neurite outgrowth (3, 4) and synapse formation (5).Cholesterol homeostasis in animals is maintained by intra-and extracellular regulation of its metabolism (6), and extracellular transport of cholesterol in vertebrates is carried by the plasma lipoprotein system. However, the blood-brain barrier prevents the CNS from accessing this system, so the CNS operates as a unique and independent CNS-specific lipoprotein system for extracellular cholesterol transport. HDL is a lipoprotein found exclusively in cerebrospinal fluid that contains mainly apolipoprotein E (apoE) and apoA-I (7). Although apoA-I is not synthesized by neural cells, and its origin is uncertain (8, 9), apoE is known to be synthesized, at least in astrocytes and microglias, to generate apoE-HDL (10, 11). Many reports suggest that apoE-HDL is a key lipoprotein in the delivery of cholesterol to the neural cells, and this lipoprotein seems to ...