Pancreatic cholesterol esterases. 3. Kinetic characterization of cholesterol ester resynthesis by the pancreatic cholesterol esterases

The ability of cholesterol esterase to catalyze the synthesis of cholesterol esters has been considered to be of limited physiological significance because of its bile salt requirements for activity, though detailed kinetic studies have not been reported. This study was performed to determine the taurocholate, pH, and substrate requirements for optimal cholesterol ester synthesis catalyzed by various pancreatic lipolytic enzymes, including the bovine 67- and 72-kDa cholesterol esterases, human 100-kDa cholesterol esterase, and human 52-kDa triglyceride lipase. In contrast to current beliefs, cholesterol esterase exhibits a bile salt independent as well as a bile salt dependent synthetic pathway. For the bovine pancreatic 67- and 72-kDa cholesterol esterases, the bile salt independent pathway is optimal at pH 6.0-6.5 and is stimulated by micromolar concentrations of taurocholate. For the bile salt dependent synthetic reaction for the 67-kDa enzyme, increasing the taurocholate concentration from 0 to 1.0 mM results in a progressive shift in the pH optimum from pH 6.0-6.5 to pH 4.5 or lower. In contrast, cholesterol ester hydrolysis by the 67-, 72-, and 100-kDa enzymes was characterized by pH optima from 5.5 to 6.5 at all taurocholate concentrations. Optimum hydrolytic activity for these three enzyme forms occurred with 10 mM taurocholate. Since hydrolysis is minimal at low taurocholate concentrations, the rate of synthesis actually exceeds hydrolysis when the taurocholate concentration is less than 1.0 mM. The 52-kDa enzyme exhibits very low cholesterol ester synthetic and hydrolytic activities, and for this enzyme both activities are bile salt independent. Thus, our data show that cholesterol esterase has both bile salt independent and bile salt dependent cholesterol ester synthetic activities and that it may catalyze the net synthesis of cholesterol esters under physiological conditions.