We investigated the levels of non-cholesterol sterols as predictors for the development of hyperglycemia (an increase in the glucose area under the curve in an oral glucose tolerance test) and incident type 2 diabetes in a 5-year follow-up study of a population-based cohort of Finnish men (METSIM Study, N = 1,050) having non-cholesterol sterols measured at baseline. Additionally we determined t...

Plant stanols and sterols of the 4-desmethyl family (e.g., sitostanol and sitosterol) effectively decrease LDL cholesterol concentrations, whereas 4,4-dimethylsterols (alpha-amyrin and lupeol) do not. Serum carotenoid concentrations, however, are decreased by both plant sterol families. The exact mechanisms underlying these effects are not known, although effects on micellar composition have be...

QUANTITATIVE STEROL COMPOSITIONS OF CULTURED ZOOXANTHELLAE ISOLATED FROM VARIOUS PACIFIC AND ATLANTIC INVERTEBRATE HOSTS: Zoanthus sociatus (a zoanthid), Oculina diffusa (a scleractian coral), Tridacna gigas (a giant clam), Melibe pilosa (a nudibranch), and Aiptasia pulchella (a sea anemone) are reported. The results clearly demonstrate large differences in sterol patterns of zooxanthellae and ...

To investigate possible reasons for the discrepancy between the abundance of 4-methyl components in free sterols and steryl chlorin esters (SCEs) which is commonly observed in sediments, experiments in which the copepod Calanus helgolandicus grazed on the dino ̄agellates Prorocentrum micans and Alexandrium tamarense were carried out. With P. micans all the algal sterols were esteri®ed as SCEs in...

Sterols are essential components of the cell membrane lipid bilayer that include molecules such as cholesterol and desmosterol, which are significantly found in the spermatozoa of several animal species. However, the presence of desmosterol in rabbit semen has never been investigated. The aims of this study were to characterize the sterol composition of subfractions of ejaculated rabbit semen a...

Sterols are widely distributed in nature. It has been suggested that they be classified into three groups according to their occurrence : (1) zoosterols, the animal sterols (cholesterol, coprosterol) ; (2) phytosterols, the plant or vegetable sterols (sitosterol, stigmasterol) ; and (3) mycosterols, the sterols found in fungi (ergosterol, fungisterol). Although ergosterol has been detected in s...

A partially purified H+-ATPase from the plasma membrane (PM) of corn (Zea mays L.) roots was inserted into vesicles prepared with soybean (Glycine max L.) phospholipids and various concentrations of individual sterols using either a freeze-thaw sonication or an octylglucoside dilution procedure. Both methods yielded a functional enzyme that retained its native characteristics. We have investiga...

This study examined the influence of a low level of dietary lectin (0.34%), at a dose that did not affect body weight or food intake, on the concentration of serum cholesterol and fecal excretion of neutral sterols in rats fed a diet containing 0.50% cholesterol and 0.13% sodium cholate for 12 d. In experiment 1, rats fed a diet with 0.34% lectin, concanavalin A, had significantly lower concent...

Sterol-dependent regulation of the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor promoter has been localized previously to a 16-base pair sequence, designated repeat 2, in the 5'-flanking region of the gene. In the current study, we show that the central 10 nucleotides of repeat 2 are crucial for the sterol regulatory activity. This sequence includes an octamer, designated sterol regulatory element 1 ...

Free and esterified sterols of eggs of the root-knot nematodes Meloidogyne incognita races 2 and 3 and M. arenaria race 1 were isolated and identified by gas-liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. The major sterols of eggs of each race were 24-ethylcholesterol (33.4-38.8% of total sterol), 24-ethylcholestanol (18.3-25.3%), 24-methylcholesterol (8.6-11.7%), 24-methylcholestanol (7.7-12.5%), an...