title: Co-cultivation of Niemann-Pick disease type C fibroblasts belonging to complementation groups alpha and beta stimulates LDL-derived cholesterol esterification.
abstract: Niemann-Pick disease type C (NPC) is a neurovisceral storage disorder with an unknown primary deficiency. Somatic cell hybridization experiments using human cultured fibroblasts have shown that two complementation groups (NPC-alpha and NPC-beta) are associated with the biochemical and clinical phenotypes comprising NPC. We identified the rarer complementation group NPC-beta originally using the technique of filipin staining as a marker for complementation. In this study we show that the esterification of cholesterol derived from the LDL pathway can be used as an isotopic assay. However, multinuclear hybrids exhibit a delayed induction in this pathway. Furthermore, we discovered that, in the presence of an LDL source, co-cultivation of fibroblasts belonging to NPC-alpha and NPC-beta stimulated cholesterol esterification.
authors.affiliation: Paediatric Research Unit, United Medical School of Guy's Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Steinberg
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mondal
authors.forename: A H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Fensom
mesh_terms: D002784:Cholesterol / Q000378:metabolism; D002788:Cholesterol Esters / Q000378:metabolism*; D018920:Coculture Techniques; D005347:Fibroblasts / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008077:Lipoproteins, LDL / Q000378:metabolism*; D009542:Niemann-Pick Diseases
chemical_list: D002788:Cholesterol Esters; D008077:Lipoproteins, LDL; D002784:Cholesterol