mTORC1 inhibition enhances cholesterol efflux to apoA-I from ABCA1-expressing BHK cells and TSC2^-/- MEFs could be partially rescued by mTORC1 inhibition.

A&B) BHK-ABCA1 cells were labeled with [³H] cholesterol for one day and induced with mifepristone (10 nM) overnight. Cholesterol efflux was measured as the percentage of [³H] cholesterol in the medium after 2 h incubation with apoA-I (5 µg/ml) with or without (A) rapamycin (20 nM) or (B) Torin-1 (250 nM). C) MEFs, wt and TSC2-/-, were labeled with [³H] cholesterol for 1 day and then incubated with or without T0901317 (10 µM) overnight. Cells were then incubated with apoA-I (10 µg/ml), DEBC (25 µM) and with or without rapamycin (20 nM) for 2 h to analyze cholesterol efflux. Data presented as the average of triplicate wells with standard deviation and representative of at least three independent experiments. *** P<0.0001, **P<0.001 and *P<0.05.