You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Grand rounds commentary
Contrasting effects of sterols on metabolism
  1. Adrian David Marais1,2
  1. 1 Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
  2. 2 Department of Pathology, National Health Laboratory Service, Cape Town, South Africa
  1. Correspondence to Professor Adrian David Marais, Department of Pathology, University of Cape Town, Cape Town 7925, South Africa; david.marais{at}uct.ac.za

https://doi.org/10.1136/jclinpath-2018-205221

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    Phytosterolaemia,1 causing severe atherosclerosis,2 illustrates the stringent requirements for sterols in membranes and the impact of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) receptor on metabolism, but is not associated with malformations seen with sterol biosynthetic defects.

    Membranes contain hopanoids3 in bacteria and a range of phytosterols in plants, mostly campesterol and beta-sitosterol. Animal cell membranes contain cholesterol. The rate-controlling step in sterol biosynthesis is the formation of mevalonic acid by hydroxymethylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase that can be inhibited by statins. During biosynthesis six isopentenyl units form a 30-carbon molecule. Demethylation, double-bond reduction and the creation of one final unsaturated bond deliver cholesterol. Phytosterols are synthesised similarly but retain methyl or ethyl moieties or double bonds. Cholesterol evolved …

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Tahir S Pillay.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Patient consent Not required.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

    Linked Articles