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Cholesterol is the principal sterol of all higher animals, distributed in body tissues, especially the brain and spinal cord, and in animal fats and oils. [3] [4] Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells [citation needed] and is an essential structural and signaling component of animal cell membranes.
Added to the sterol frame with the alcohol group at position 3 are 2 methyl groups at carbon positions 10 and 13 and a 2-isooctyl group at position 17. The molecule is unsaturated at position 5,6 with an alkene group. The total number of stereocenters is 8. The unnatural cholesterol molecule that has also been synthesized is called ent-cholesterol.
Cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase is a cytochrome P450 heme enzyme that oxidizes cholesterol in the position 7 using molecular oxygen. It is an oxidoreductase. CYP7A1 is located in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and is important for the synthesis of bile acid and the regulation of cholesterol levels. [8] [10]
[2] [3] The most familiar type of animal sterol is cholesterol, which is vital to the structure of the cell membrane, and functions as a precursor to fat-soluble vitamins and steroid hormones. While technically alcohols, sterols are classified by biochemists as lipids ( fats in the broader sense of the term).
Cholesterol synthesis pathway. More generally, this synthesis occurs in three stages, with the first stage taking place in the cytoplasm and the second and third stages occurring in the endoplasmic reticulum. [9] The stages are as follows: [12] 1. The synthesis of isopentenyl pyrophosphate, the "building block" of cholesterol 2.
HMG-CoA reductase (3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, official symbol HMGCR) is the rate-controlling enzyme (NADH-dependent, EC 1.1.1.88; NADPH-dependent, EC 1.1.1.34) of the mevalonate pathway, the metabolic pathway that produces cholesterol and other isoprenoids.
Lipid metabolism is the synthesis and degradation of lipids in cells, involving the breakdown and storage of fats for energy and the synthesis of structural and functional lipids, such as those involved in the construction of cell membranes. In animals, these fats are obtained from food and are synthesized by the liver. [1]
Lecithin–cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT, also called phosphatidylcholine–sterol O-acyltransferase) is an enzyme found in many animals, including humans. It converts free cholesterol into cholesteryl ester , a more hydrophobic form of cholesterol.