Figure 4
From: α-Tocopherol modulates the low density lipoprotein receptor of human HepG2 cells
The effects of different tocopherols on the LDL receptor binding activity, protein and mRNA of HepG2 cells. Cells were incubated for 24 h at 37°C in media containing the indicated concentrations of either α-tocopherol (●), δ-tocopherol (○) or γ-tocopherol (▲). The LDL receptor binding activity (A) was measured in triplicate using colloidal-gold LDL. The LDL receptor protein (B) was measured by western blotting and the LDL receptor mRNA (C) was measured using a PCR and western blotting technique as described in Methods and materials and the data was expressed as the percent difference from the values obtained with control cells not pretreated with α-tocopherol. The LDL receptor activity in control cells averaged 40 ± 5 ng LDL/mg cell protein, the LDL receptor protein in control cells averaged 0.85 ± 0.39 absorbance units and the amount of LDL receptor mRNA in control cells averaged 4.0 ± 0.5 × 10-5 copies/μg RNA.