Cholesterol Efflux Effect of High Density Lipoprotein is Impaired by Whole Cigarette Smoke Extracts Through Lipid Peroxidation

It has been reported that high density lipoprotein (HDL) plays an anti-atherogenic role by stimulating cholesterol efflux from the foam cells in the atheromatous lesion. In this study, we prepared a novel modified form of HDL (CS-HDL) by incubating HDL with whole cigarette smoke (CS) extracts containing both particulate matter and gas-phase smoke, and examined its effect on cholesterol efflux. CS-HDL showed a marked increase of conjugated dienes and denaturation of apoA-I, a major protein component of HDL. The cholesterol efflux effect of CS-HDL was remarkably reduced to the same level as that of oxidatively modified HDL induced by copper ion (Ox-HDL). Addition of 20 μg/ml superoxide dismutase (SOD) during the CS-modification of HDL caused retrieval of cholesterol efflux activity by 53% and a remarkable decrease in the conjugated dienes level. SOD, however, had no ameliorative effect on apoA-I denaturation. When HDL was incubated only with gas-phase smoke (gasCS-HDL), neither increase of conjugated dienes nor impairment of the cholesterol efflux effect was observed, whereas apoA-I was denaturated to the same extent as seen in CS-HDL. These results indicate that whole CS-extracts, but not gas-phase smoke, reduces cholesterol efflux effect of HDL and that lipid peroxidation associated with superoxide anion is involved in this functional impairment.