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Sterols and related compounds play essential roles in the physiology of eukaryotic organisms, and are essential for normal physiology of plants, animals, and fungi. [4] For example, cholesterol forms part of the cellular membrane in animals, where it affects the cell membrane's fluidity and serves as secondary messenger in developmental signaling.
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.
Sterols can be present in the free form and as fatty acid esters and glycolipids. The bound form is usually hydrolyzed in the small intestines by pancreatic enzymes . [ 7 ] Some of the sterols are removed during the deodorization step of refining oils and fats, without, however, changing their relative composition.
Other examples of sterols are the bile acids and their conjugates, [44] which in mammals are oxidized derivatives of cholesterol and are synthesized in the liver. The plant equivalents are the phytosterols , such as β-sitosterol , stigmasterol , and brassicasterol ; the latter compound is also used as a biomarker for algal growth. [ 45 ]
Now, after the description of the structural basis for sterol sensing and transport, [15] ORP protein family members are known to be essential for sterol signalling and sterol transport functions. Their peculiar structure is characterized by a conserved β-barrel sterol-binding fold with additional domains that can target multiple organelle ...
Ergosterol (ergosta-5,7,22-trien-3β-ol) is a sterol found in fungi, and named after ergot, the common name of members of the fungal genus Claviceps from which ergosterol was first isolated. Ergosterol is a component of yeast and other fungal cell membranes , serving many of the same functions that cholesterol serves in animal cells. [ 1 ]
The molecular mechanisms regulating the absorption of dietary sterols in the body are poorly understood, and as sitosterolemia is a rare autosomal recessively inherited lipid metabolic disorder characterized by hyperabsorption and decreased biliary excretion of dietary sterols, studies have focused on the molecular basis of sitosterolemia to shed light on important principles concerning ...
Plant sterols are cholesterol-like molecules found in all plant foods, with the highest concentrations occurring in vegetable oils. Plant sterols are plant equivalents of cholesterol and have a very similar molecular structure. According to their structure, they can be divided into sterols and stanols, stanols being a saturated subgroup of sterols.