Abstract
The purpose of this study was to characterize the lipolytic activities released by heparin from rat livers. Heparin perfusates of rat livers degraded monooleoylglycerol, trioleoylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine in emulsions as well as in chylomicrons, chylomicron remnants, low-density lipoprotein/high-density lipoprotein-1 (LDL/HDL-1) and high-density lipoprotein-2 (HDL-2). The preferred substrate was mono-oleoylglycerol. Heparin perfusates were separated by chromatography on either heparin-Sepharose or N-desulphated, N-acetylated heparin-Sepharose into at least two related lipases which differed in their ability to hydrolyse HDL-2 phosphatidylcholine, but not in their ability to degrade mono-oleoylglycerol, trioleoylglycerol and phosphatidylcholine in emulsions. The sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS)/polyacrylamide-gel-electrophoretic patterns of heparin perfusates purified on either normal or N-desulphated N-acetylated heparin-Sepharose were the same, despite differences in their ability to degrade HDL-2 phosphatidylcholine. There was a single band of Mr 56000 without 2-mercaptoethanol in the SDS disruption buffer and three major bands, of Mr 62000, 59000 and 56000, with 2-mercaptoethanol present. When mono-oleoylglycerol lipase was purified 161-fold, there was a concomitant enrichment of the Mr-56000 protein.