Interactions of different lipoproteins with supported phospholipid raft membrane (SPRM) patterns to understand similar in-vivo processes.

To better understand how lipoproteins interact and enter endothelium and participate in cellular processes, we investigated preferential lipid partitioning of triglyceride rich lipoproteins (TGRL), chylomicrons (CM), low density lipoproteins (LDL), very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) and their lipolysis products using supported phospholipid raft membrane (SPRM) patterns. We prepared SPRM patterns with Texas red labeled phospholipid patterns and Marina blue labeled raft patterns and added Atto-520 labeled lipoproteins (TGRL, CM, VLDL, LDL) and their lipolysis products in separate experiments and characterized these interactions using fluorescence microscopy. We observed that VLDL and LDL preferentially interacted with raft patterns. In contrast the TGRL and lipolysed products of TGRL interacted with both the patterns, slightly elevated preference for raft patterns and CM and its lipolysis products showed greater affinity to phospholipid patterns. The clear preference of VLDL and LDL for raft patterns suggests that these lipoproteins associate with cholesterol and sphingomyelin rich lipid micro-domains during their early interactions with endothelial cells, leading to atherosclerosis.