Low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 mediates hypoxia-induced very low density lipoprotein-cholesteryl ester uptake and accumulation in cardiomyocytes.

Aims: The myocardium accumulates intracellular lipids under ischaemic conditions, and myocardial fat deposition is closely associated with cardiac dysfunction. Our aims were to analyse the effect of hypoxia on low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1) expression in neonatal rat ventricular myocytes (NRVM) and cardiac-derived HL-1 cells and the molecular mechanisms involved in this effect, to determine the role of LRP1 in the very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) uptake by hypoxic cardiomyocytes, and to study the effect of hypoxia on lipoprotein receptor expression and myocardial lipid profile in an in vivo porcine experimental model of acute myocardial infarction.

Methods And Results: Thin-layer chromatography after lipid extraction showed that VLDL exposure leads to cholesteryl ester (CE) and triglyceride (TG) accumulation in a dose-dependent manner and that hypoxic conditions further increased VLDL-derived intracellular lipid accumulation in HL-1 cells.