We have developed a line of Chinese hamster ovary cells with a 500-fold increase in 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, the membrane-bound enzyme that controls cholesterol synthesis. This line, designated (UT-1, was obtained by stepwise adaptation of cells to growth in increasing concentrations of compactin, a competitive inhibitor of reductase. Reductase accounts for approximately 2% of total cell protein in UT-1 cells, as calculated from enzyme specific activity and by immunoprecipitation of reductase after growth of cells in [35S]methionine. After solubilization in the presence of the protease inhibitor leupeptin and electrophoresis in NaDodSO4/polyacrylamide gels, reductase subunits from UT-1 cells were visualized by immunoblotting as a single band (Mr = 62,000). To accommodate the increased amounts of reductase, UT-1 cells developed marked proliferation of tubular smooth endoplasmic reticulum (ER) membranes, as revealed by immunofluorescence and electron microscopy. The ER tubules were packed in crystalloid hexagonal arrays. When UT-1 cells were incubated with low density lipoprotein, reductase activity was suppressed by 90% in 12 hr and the crystalloid ER disappeared. UT-1 cells should be useful for studies of the regulation of reductase and also for studies of the synthesis and degradation of smooth ER.

Chin, D. J., Luskey, K. L., Anderson, R. G., Faust, J. R., Goldstein, J. L., & Brown, M. S. (1982). Appearance of crystalloid endoplasmic reticulum in compactin-resistant Chinese hamster cells with a 500-fold increase in 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 79(4), 1185–1189.