Abstract
In this study, we investigated the role of liver X receptor (LXR) in regulating cholesterol concentration in goose primary hepatocytes. Intracellular and extracellular cholesterol concentration, mRNA expression levels of genes related to phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K) pathway, sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2 (SREBP-2), and 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMGR) were measured in primary goose hepatocytes. We found that the intracellular cholesterol concentration showed an uptrend manner when the TO901317 concentration was under 1 μmol/L; compared with 1 μmol/L TO901317, 10 μmol/L TO901317 had an inhibiting effect (P<0.05). The regulation mode of SREBP-2 and HMGR gene expression is similar with that of intracellular cholesterol concentration. These data suggested that LXR activation may stimulate the cholesterol biosynthesis by activating expression of SREBP-2 and HMGR. Interestingly, the mRNA levels of genes related with PI3K pathway increased in the presence of TO901317, which suggested that LXR activation could promote PI3K signalling activity.
Acknowledgements
The work was supported by the National Natural Science Funds of China (No. 31101712).