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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America logoLink to Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
. 1987 Jan;84(2):556–560. doi: 10.1073/pnas.84.2.556

Niemann-pick variant disorders: comparison of errors of cellular cholesterol homeostasis in group D and group C fibroblasts.

J D Butler, M E Comly, H S Kruth, M Vanier, M Filling-Katz, J Fink, N Barton, H Weintroub, J M Quirk, T Tokoro, et al.
PMCID: PMC304248  PMID: 3540969

Abstract

Fluorescence microscopic examination of filipin-stained cultured skin fibroblasts derived from two brothers with group D Niemann-Pick disease revealed abnormal storage of low density lipoprotein (LDL)-derived cholesterol. LDL stimulation of intracellular cholesteryl ester synthesis was severely compromised in the Niemann-Pick D fibroblasts, as it also was in fibroblasts obtained from Niemann-Pick C patients. Cholesteryl ester synthesis was intermediately deficient in cells derived from an obligate group-D heterozygous carrier. Activity of acyl-CoA:cholesterol acyltransferase was within the normal range in cell-free extracts of both LDL-depleted and LDL-supplemented cultures of Niemann-Pick C and D fibroblasts. Incubation of Niemann-Pick D fibroblasts with LDL did not lead to as high a level of intracellular cholesterol accumulation as the excessive storage observed with Niemann-Pick C fibroblasts. These findings suggest that the Niemann-Pick variant disorders may represent a family of specific and possibly individual mutations that disrupt cellular cholesterol homeostasis.

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Selected References

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