In order to study the biosynthesis, composition, and origin of sterols in the Florida land crabs, Cardisoma guanhumi (Latreille), we fed 17 male crabs either a cholesterol-free or a high cholesterol diet for 2 to 7 weeks. The origin of sterols in these crabs, whether from biosynthesis or from the diet, was determined by tahree procedures: the incorporation of isotopic mevalonate into the choles...

Sterols from free sterol and steryl ester fractions from Heterodera zeae and from total lipids of Zea mays roots were analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) and by GLC-mass spectrometry. The major free sterols of H. zeae were 24-ethylcholesterol (54.4% of total free sterol), 24-ethylcholesta-5,22-dien-3beta-ol (13.3%), 24-methylcholesterol (12.5%), and cholesterol (7.2%). The same four ste...

Small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements are performed on pure dimyristoyl phosphatidylcholine (DMPC) unilamellar vesicles (ULV) and those containing either 20 or 47 mol% cholesterol, ergosterol or lanosterol. From the SANS data, we were able to determine the influence of these sterols on ULV bilayer thickness and vesicle area expansion coefficients. While these parameters have been d...

BACKGROUND Plant sterol supplementation was shown to reduce total and LDL-cholesterol concentrations, whereas endurance training was shown to increase HDL-cholesterol concentrations and decrease triacylglycerol concentrations. OBJECTIVE The objective was to examine the effect of plant sterols, endurance training, and the combination of plant sterols and endurance training on plasma lipid and ...

Two genes that encode enzymes in cholesterol biosynthesis, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase and HMG-CoA synthase, and the gene encoding the low density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor are repressed when sterols accumulate in animal cells. Their 5'-flanking regions contain a common element, designated sterol regulatory element-1 (SRE-1). In the HMG-CoA synthase and LDL recept...