Isolation and Characterization of an Abnormal High Density Lipoprotein in Tangier Disease

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Abstract

The nature of the high density lipoproteins has been investigated in five patients homozygous for Tangier disease (familial high density lipoprotein deficiency). It has been established that Tangier high density lipoproteins, as isolated by ultracentrifugation, are morphologically heterogenous and contain several proteins (Apo B, albumin, and Apo A-II). An abnormal lipoprotein has been isolated from the d = 1.063-1.21 g/ml ultracentrifugal fraction by agarose-column chromatography which contains apoprotein A-II as the sole protein constituent. In negative-stain electron microscopy, these lipoproteins appeared as spherical particles 55-75 Å in diameter. By a variety of criteria (immunochemical, polyacrylamide electrophoresis, amino acid composition, and fluorescence measurements), apoprotein A-I the major apoprotein of normal high density lipoproteins and the C apoproteins were absent from this lipoprotein. As demonstrated by 125I very low density lipoprotein incubation experiments with Tangier plasma, C apoproteins did not associate with lipoproteins of d = 1.063-1.21 g/ml. Tangier apoprotein A-II, isolated to homogeneity by delipidation of the apoprotein A-II-containing lipoprotein or Sephadex G-200 guanidine-HCl chromatography of the d = 1.063-1.21 g/ml fraction, was indistinguishable from control apoprotein A-II with respect to amino acid composition and migration of tryptic peptides in urea-polyacrylamide electrophoresis. The ability of Tangier apoprotein A-II to bind phospholipid was demonstrated by in vitro reconstitution experiments and morphological and chemical analysis of lipid-protein complexes.

Authors

Gerd Assmann, Peter N. Herbert, Donald S. Fredrickson, Trudy Forte