RATIONALE Reduced plasma cholesterol and increased high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels promote regression of atherosclerosis, in a process characterized by lipid unloading and emigration of macrophages from lesions. In contrast free cholesterol loading of macrophages leads to imbalanced Rac1/Rho activities and impaired chemotaxis. OBJECTIVE To study the role of HDL and the ATP-binding casse...

The literature suggests that several species of insects can convert Czs and Czs sterols to cholestane derivatives. According to Bergmann (l), cholesterol is the major sterol constituent (85%) and the plant sterol sitosterol a minor component of chrysalis oil obtained from the silkworm Bombyx mori, although this insect feeds exclusively on mulberry leaves. More recently, Bergmann and Levinson (2...

BACKGROUND Plant sterols are bioactive compounds, found in all vegetable foods, which inhibit cholesterol absorption. Little is known about the effect of habitual natural dietary intake of plant sterols. OBJECTIVE We investigated the relation between plant sterol density (in mg/MJ) and serum concentrations of cholesterol in men and women in northern Sweden. DESIGN The analysis included 37 1...

A fetal hamster increases in mass almost 100-fold in the third trimester of gestation. During this 5.5-day period, the acquisition of over 4 mg of cholesterol is required for normal development. The purpose of the present studies was to determine the potential source(s) of this fetal sterol. Rates of cholesterol synthesis in the whole fetus were measured initially. Synthesis rates in the whole ...

An HPLC-DAD method for the quality control of wild and cultivated Ganoderma lucidum (Linhzhi) and related species samples was developed and validated. The quantitative determination of G. lucidum and its related species using 14 triterpene constituents, including nine ganoderma acids (compounds 4-12), four alcohols (compounds 13-16), and one sterol (ergosterol, 17) were reported. The standard c...

1. The distributions ofseveral enzymes and other marker components were examined after zonal centrifugations of whole homogenates from glucose-repressed Saccharomyces cerevisiae on sucrose and iso-osmotic Ficoll, and the composition and morphology ofthe fractions were investigated. 2. After high-speed zonal centrifugation most of the protein, acid and alkaline phosphatases, alkaline pyrophospha...

ApoE plays an important role in lipoprotein metabolism. This study investigated the effects of adenovirus-mediated human apoE overexpression (AdhApoE3) on sterol metabolism and in vivo reverse cholesterol transport (RCT). In wild-type mice, AdhApoE3 resulted in decreased HDL cholesterol levels and a shift toward larger HDL in plasma, whereas hepatic cholesterol content increased (P < 0.05). The...

The scavenger receptor class B type I (SR-BI), which is expressed in the liver and intestine, plays a critical role in cholesterol metabolism in rodents. While hepatic SR-BI expression controls high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol metabolism, intestinal SR-BI has been proposed to facilitate cholesterol absorption. To evaluate further the relevance of SR-BI in the enterohepatic circulation...