Abstract
To elucidate further the binding of high-density-lipoprotein subfraction 3 (HDL3) to cells, the involvement of glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored proteins (GPI-proteins) was studied. Treatment of cultured cells, such as fibroblasts or SK-MES-1 cells, with a phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) significantly decreases specific HDL3 binding. Moreover, PI-PLC treatment of cultured cells or cellular plasma membrane fractions results in releasing proteins. These proteins have a soluble form and can also bind HDL3, as revealed by ligand blotting experiments with HDL3. In order to obtain enriched GPI-proteins, we used a detergent-free purification method to prepare a caveolar membrane fraction. In the caveolar fraction, we obtained, by ligand blotting experiments, the enrichment of two HDL3-binding proteins with molecular masses of 120 and 80 kDa. These proteins were also revealed in a plasma membrane preparation with two other proteins, with molecular masses of 150 and 104 kDa, and were sensitive to PI-PLC treatment. Electron microscopy also showed the binding of Au-labelled HDL3 inside the caveolar membrane invaginations. In SK-MES-1 cells, HDL3 are internalized into a particular structure, resulting in the accumulation and concentration of such specific membrane domains. To sum up, a demonstration has been made of the implication of GPI-proteins as well as caveolae in the binding of HDL3 to cells.