Regulation of Steroidogenesis in Rat Adrenal Gland: Identification of the Bifunctional, Hormone-sensitive Cholesterol Esterase--triacylglycerol Lipase Enzyme Protein and Its Discrimination from Hormone-insensitive Lipases

The activities of hormone-sensitive cholesterol esterase and hormone-sensitive triacylglycerol lipase from rat adrenal glands were enhanced about 2-fold by means of ether stress and showed parallel elution profiles on a Sepharose CL-6B column. Both enzymatic activities were inhibited to a similar extent by DFP after separation from hormone-insensitive lipase on heparin-Sepharose. Fractions from the gel filtration column containing the two hormone-sensitive enzymes showed incorporation of tritium-labelled DFP into only one polypeptide of Mr 84 000. From these results we conclude that both hormone-sensitive activities reside on one polypeptide of Mr 84 000, thus providing further support to the concept that the different hormone-sensitive acylester hydrolase activities in steroid-secreting tissues as well as in adipose tissue are performed by the same bifunctional enzyme. In addition to the hormone-sensitive enzyme, rat adrenals contained high amounts of neutral triacylglycerol lipase activity which was not affected by stress. The latter enzyme was resistant to high salt concentrations, was less susceptible to inhibition by DFP, but could be inhibited completely by the addition of antibodies raised against rat liver lipase, thus most probably representing the adrenal liver lipase-like triacylglycerol lipase.