Abstract:
Oxidative modification of low density lipoprotein(LDL) was known to play an important role in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis in both animal and human. This study was to explore the time- and dose-effect of the nature of copper-induced oxidation of LDL following the incubation of native LDL with CuSO4 in vitro. The LDL was prepared by a sequential-density gradient ultracentrifugation method. The conjugated dienes and TBARS were measured as markers of oxidized LDL. CuSO4 in the doses varying from 10 to 50 uM showed an all or none effect on the oxidation of LDL; when 100 u1 (plasma equivalent) of LDL from different individual was present in the incubation mixture. Increasing amounts of LDL in the incubation mixture dampened the "oxidative capability" of CuSO4 unless an additional amount or an equimolar concentration of copper was added to match the increment of LDL content, suggesting that coppercatalyzed oxidation of LDL was a specific process, i.e. in need of a critical amount of copper to interact with the lipoprotein prior to the initiation of the oxidative process. The relationship of the proportional increment of both copper and the corresponding LDL molecules supported such contention. Thus the required amount of copper for initiating an all or none oxidation of LDL in the preparation could reflect or taken as a marker that inversely related to the "oxidizability" of LDL in the sample. Besides the LDL, high density lipoprotein either HDL2 or HDL3 seem to share this common behavior of copper-induced oxidation of lipoproteins. A critical amount of the copper, presumably being needed for binding to its binding sites in the apoprotein of lipoproteins, less copper was needed for HDL than LDL. The LDL of thalassemia patients whose blood was under excessive oxidative stress but less in lipoproteins with hypocholesterolemia in particular were used in the study. The LDL preparation from thalassemia was more sensitive to the copper-catalyzed LDL oxidation (less copper was needed) than that of normal-volunteer. This again reemphasized the role of apoprotein in copper-induced oxidation of lipoproteins. Micromolar concentrations of antioxidants (ascorbic acid and α-tocopherol) were able to shift the time-effect curves to the right without affecting the dose-effect relationship. Probucol, a highly effective antioxidant was able to do the same, but with the dose of 10-time less than those of ascorbic acid and a-tocopherol. In contrast, the EDTA which acted as a copper chelating agent was able to shift the dose-effect curve to the right. From the analysis of time-effect relationship, it always found that the effects on the formation of conjugated dienes preceeced that of TBARS, suggesting that formation of conjugated dienes was an preceeding step before the final oxidation of lipids, TBARS were formed. It was concluded from these studies that copper-catalyzed oxidation of LDL is an unique process; it required a critical amount of copper to bind to LDL molecule before the oxidative process can be initiated. This behavior also found in the oxidation of HDL. The need of a critical amount of copper to bind to lipoproteins had been proposed in this study as a marker in determining the susceptibility or resistance of that particular lipoprotein preparation; types, sources and concentrations of the lipoproteins. It could also be concluded that the oxidation of LDL by copper was mediated by a free radical mechanism via the formation of conjugated dienes coinciding with the lag time before the formation of TBARS and was prolonged by antioxidants.