Increased hepatic dolichol and dolichyl phosphate-mediated glycosylation in rats fed cholesterol

The concentrations of dolichol and cholesterol in livers of rats maintained for 2 weeks on a diet enriched with cholesterol (1%) were significantly higher than those in animals on a normal diet. The incorporation of radioactive mevalonate into dolichol and into a dolichyl diphosphate oligosaccharide fraction by liver slices of the cholesterol-fed animals was increased over that of the control group. However, the incorporation of radioactive mevalonate into cholesterol was decreased, as was the incorporation of radioactive acetate into both dolichol and, more markedly, cholesterol. These results are consistent with cholesterol feeding causing partial inhibition of the cholesterol-biosynthetic pathway both at β-hydroxy-β-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase and at a step after farnesyl pyrophosphate formation, resulting in a greater flux of mevalonate to dolichol and an increase in pool sizes of precursors of β-hydroxy-β-methylglutaryl coenzyme A. Maximal activity of glycosyl transfer to dolichyl phosphate was greater in microsomal preparations from livers of cholesterol-fed animals compared with those of control animals. A corresponding higher degree of in vitro glycosylation of endogenous protein was also observed. It is concluded that the cholesterol-enriched diet caused an increase in the biosynthesis and concentration of dolichyl monophosphate which resulted in a higher level of N-glycosylation of protein. These effects were complicated by differences in the kinetics of glycosyl transfer and in its response to exogenous dolichyl monophosphate.