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. 2010 Jul 23;5(7):e11765. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0011765

Figure 1. Macrophages accumulate cholesteryl esters when incubated with cholesterol crystals (CHCs).

Figure 1

(A) Primary macrophages and THP-1 macrophages were incubated with 0.1–2 mg/ml CHCs and cholesteryl esters (CE) were measured from cellular lipid extracts by TLC. (B) Cytochalasin D (cytD; 2 µM) was employed to block cytoskeletal movements during a 16 h incubation of primary and THP-1 macrophages with CHCs (0.5 and 1.0 mg/ml, respectively). (C) THP-1 macrophages treated with CHCs ± cytD were stained with fluorophore-conjugated cholera toxin subunit B (cell membrane; red) and Hoechst (nuclei; blue). The cells were imaged using confocal fluorescence microscopy, combined with detection of CHCs by confocal reflection of the 488 nm laser line (green) (panels i, iii). CHCs are indicated by arrows in the bright field panels (ii, iiii). Scale bar 5 µm. Each experiment was performed ≥4 times. The data are means ± s.e.m. ** = p<0.01, compared to the control cells.