Figure 5

Palmitoylation facilitates cholesterol association. (a) Cholesterol associated with receptor complex was determined in HEK, HEKOPRM1 and HEKC170A cells. The amount of cholesterol precipitated with PBS in HEK cells was used for normalization. (b-c) HEKOPRM1 and HEKC170A cells were treated with PBS (Control), 0.5 μM simvastatin (Simva), or 0.5 μM simvastatin with 20 ng/ml cholesterol (Simva+Chol) for 12 h. Membrane cholesterol contents were determined in (b) as described in Methods. Cholesterol association with receptor complex was determined in (c). One-way ANOVA with Dunnett's test (b) or two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni's test (a, c) was used. The error bars and "*" represent the standard deviations and significant changes (p < 0.05, n > 3), respectively. N/S, no significance.