@article {van de Water971, author = {B van de Water and T J van Berkel and J Kuiper}, title = {Activation of rat Kupffer cells to tumoricidal cells by the immunomodulator muramyl tripeptide-phosphatidylethanolamine incorporated into the novel drug carrier lactosylated low density lipoprotein.}, volume = {45}, number = {5}, pages = {971--977}, year = {1994}, publisher = {American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics}, abstract = {Lactosylated low density lipoprotein (lac-LDL) is a potential carrier for the site-specific delivery of lipophilic drugs to liver macrophages (Kupffer cells). In the present study we evaluated the application of lac-LDL as a carrier to target the immunomodulator muramyl tripeptide-phosphatidylethanolamine (MTP-PE) to rat Kupffer cells, to specifically activate these cells to tumor-killing cells. The drug carrier 125I-labeled lac-LDL interacted with a galactose-specific recognition system on isolated rat Kupffer cells. The in vitro association of 125I-lac-LDL at 37 degrees was maximal after 20 min, whereas degradation of 125I-lac-LDL was observed after a lag period of 10 min. Cultured rat Kupffer cells were activated after incubation with MTP-PE incorporated into lac-LDL. Lac-LDL-MTP-PE induced a 2-fold increase in the amount of newly synthesized proteins secreted by Kupffer cells. Lac-LDL-MTP-PE induced a concentration-dependent increase in the cytostatic and cytolytic activities of Kupffer cells towards tumor cells (B16F10 melanoma cells) in vitro. Treatment of rats with lac-LDL-MTP-PE also resulted in dose-dependent activation of Kupffer cells to tumoricidal cells, whereas the drug carrier alone had only a minor effect on this activity of Kupffer cells. The present data show that lac-LDL is an effective carrier for the delivery of the lipophilic immunomodulator MTP-PE to rat Kupffer cells. The specific activation of Kupffer cells to tumoricidal cells by lac-LDL-MTP-PE may be beneficial for the treatment of liver metastases.}, issn = {0026-895X}, URL = {https://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/45/5/971}, eprint = {https://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/45/5/971.full.pdf}, journal = {Molecular Pharmacology} }