Objective-By excreting cellular cholesterol to apolipoprotein A-I, ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) mediates the biogenesis of high-density lipoprotein in hepatocytes and prevents foam cell formation from macrophages. We recently showed that cell surface-resident ABCA1 (csABCA1) undergoes ubiquitination and later lysosomal degradation through the endosomal sorting complex required for transport system. Herein, we investigated the relevance of this degradation pathway to the turnover of csABCA1 in hypercholesterolemia. Approach and Results-Immunoprecipitation and cell surface-biotinylation studies with HepG2 cells and mouse peritoneal macrophages showed that the ubiquitination level and degradation of csABCA1 were facilitated by treatment with a liver X receptor (LXR) agonist and acetylated low-density lipoprotein. The effects of an LXR agonist and acetylated lowdensity lipoprotein on the degradation of csABCA1 were repressed completely by treatment with bafilomycin, an inhibitor of lysosomal degradation, and by depletion of tumor susceptibility gene 101, a major component of endosomal sorting complex required for transport-I. RNAi analysis indicated that LXRβ inhibited the accelerated lysosomal degradation of csABCA1 by the LXR agonist, regardless of its transcriptional activity. Cell surface coimmunoprecipitation with COS1 cells expressing extracellularly hemagglutinin-tagged ABCA1 showed that LXRβ interacted with csABCA1 and inhibited the ubiquitination of csABCA1. Immunoprecipitates with anti-ABCA1 antibodies from the liver plasma membranes showed less LXRβ and a higher ubiquitination level of ABCA1 in high-fat diet-fed mice than in normal chow-fed mice. (csABCA1) is considered to be important to understanding the regulation of ABCA1 function. A key molecule for the degradation of csABCA1 is the protease calpain, which can cleave ABCA1 in the intracellular compartment or at the cell surface.
Conclusions-Under15,16 However, calpain seems not to be involved in the accelerated degradation of ABCA1 induced by loading with free cholesterol and unsaturated fatty acids. 10,11 We recently found another degradation mechanism of csABCA1 that is independent of the calpain protease-involving machinery. Through this mechanism, ubiquitination, a regulated posttranslational modification that conjugates ubiquitin to lysine residues of targeted proteins, acts as a signal for the degradation of csABCA1 by the direction of ubiquitinated csABCA1 to lysosomal degradation.
17This degradation process involves the endosomal sorting complex required for transport (ESCRT) system, a set of proteins comprising ESCRT-0, -I, -II, and -III, which recognizes ubiquitinated cargo in the early endosome and mediates its recruitment to and incorporation into multivesicular bodies, leading to lysosomal degradation. [18][19][20] To explore the possibility of restoring the turnover of csABCA1 and inhibiting progression of atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemia, in the current study, we focused on the ubiquitination-mediated lysosomal de...