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During hibernation, fat is known to be the preferred source of energy. A detailed analysis of different phospholipids, as well as free and esterified cholesterol, was conducted to investigate lipid abnormalities during hibernation. The levels of total phospholipids and total cholesterol in the serum of black bears were found to increase significantly in hibernation as compared with the active state...
Both cholesterol and polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) metabolism play an important role in retinal and brain development and function. Dietary intake of cholesterol is accompanied with higher risk of heart disease and was suggested to have a role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease, while dietary PUFAs were reported to act in an opposite way. The same phenomena could be seen in case of inflammation...
Apolipoprotein E (apoE) has been genetically linked to late-onset Alzheimer's disease. From the three common alleles (ε2, ε3 and ε4), ε4 has been suggested to promote amyloid beta (Aß) plaque fibrillation, one hallmark of Alzheimer's disease. It has been demonstrated that altered lipid content of hippocampal plasma membrane coincides with the disease. In this study, we show for the first time that...
Eukaryotic cells synthesize sterols in the endoplasmatic reticulum (ER) from where it needs to be efficiently transported to the plasma membrane, which harbors ∼90% of the free sterol pool of the cell. Sterols that are being taken up from the environment, on the other hand, are transported back from the plasma membrane to the ER, where the free sterols are esterified to steryl esters. The molecular...
Cell sterol supply is subjected to tight negative feedback regulation through the SREBP pathway. Upon cholesterol depletion, SREBP transcription factors become activated by cleavage of a membrane bound precursor form, which stimulates the expression of the genes encoding proteins of the cholesterol synthesis pathway. In this paper, we discuss two situations of extracellular stress (hypoxia and heat...
Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (VCC) forms oligomeric transmembrane pores in cholesterol-rich membranes. To better understand this process, we used planar bilayer membranes. In symmetric membranes, the rate of the channel formation by VCC has a superlinear dependency on the cholesterol membrane fraction. Thus, more than one cholesterol molecule can facilitate VCC-pore formation. In asymmetric membranes,...
Sphingolipids are degraded by sphingomyelinase and ceramidase in the gut to ceramide and sphingosine, which may inhibit cell proliferation and induce apoptosis, and thus have anti-tumour effects in the gut. Although previous rodent studies including experiments on knockout mice indicate a role of neutral ceramidase in ceramide digestion, the human enzyme has never been purified and characterized in...
The lipid composition of vascular walls changes during development, ageing and pathological processes. Preeclampsia is the most common pregnancy-associated pathological syndrome. It is accompanied by significant remodelling of the extracellular matrix, both in the umbilical cord vessels and in the surrounding Wharton's jelly. Lipids of the umbilical cord have not been extensively studied. Here we...
The rate of transbilayer movement (flip-flop) of cholesterol was estimated using planar bilayers with defined initial asymmetry, formed by the opposing monolayers technique. Vibrio cholerae cytolysin (VCC) was utilized as a molecular tool for measuring the cholesterol concentration in the cis leaflet of asymmetric bilayers. To quantify cholesterol flip-flop in planar lipid bilayers, a mathematical...
Rat spermatozoa main lipid classes and their fatty acids were studied to assess their possible changes in capacitation and the acrosomal reaction (AR), induced in vitro. Capacitation-associated protein tyrosine phosphorylation, and the efflux of 30% of the total cholesterol from gametes to the medium, took place concomitantly with the release of a similar percentage, i.e., a larger amount, of the...
Peroxisomal 3-ketoacyl-CoA thiolase B (Thb) catalyzes the final step in the peroxisomal β-oxidation of straight-chain acyl-CoAs and is under the transcription control of the nuclear hormone receptor PPARα. PPARα binds to and is activated by the synthetic compound Wy14,643 (Wy). Here, we show that the magnitude of Wy-mediated induction of peroxisomal β-oxidation of radiolabeled (1- 14 C) palmitate...
Dyslipidemia is one of the most significant risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Cholesterol homeostasis is regulated by both the receptor-mediated endocytosis of Low Density Lipoproteins by LDL receptors and de novo cholesterol synthesis via the rate-limiting enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase. Although statins, 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase substrate competitors,...
The cholesterol biosynthesis pathway has recently been shown to play an important role in the innate immune response to viral infection with host protection occurring through a coordinate down regulation of the enzymes catalysing each metabolic step. In contrast, statin based drugs, which form the principle pharmaceutical agents for decreasing the activity of this pathway, target a single enzyme....
Oxysterols are oxygenated derivatives of cholesterol that may be formed by either enzymatic or non-enzymatic mechanisms. Expression of the genes responsible for oxysterol synthesis (GROS) is known to be restricted across different tissues and cell types. Regulation of the transcription of GROS and the activity of their enzyme transcripts has been the subject of intense activity for many years. Recent...
It is now well established that the ATP-binding cassette transporter A1 (ABCA1) plays a pivotal role in HDL metabolism, reverse cholesterol transport and net efflux of cellular cholesterol and phospholipids. We aimed to resolve some uncertainties related to the putative function of ABCA1 as a mediator of lipid transport by using a methodology developed in the laboratory to isolate a protein and study...
Cholesterol biosynthesis is a multi-step process involving more than 20 enzymes in several subcellular compartments. The pre-squalene segment of the cholesterol/isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway is localized in peroxisomes. This review intends to highlight recent findings illustrating the important role peroxisomes play in cholesterol biosynthesis and maintenance of cholesterol homeostasis. Disruption...
The human genome encodes about 800 different G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR). They are key molecules in signal transduction pathways that transmit signals of a variety of ligands such as hormones and neurotransmitters to the cell interior. Upon ligand binding, the receptors undergo structural transitions that either enhance or inhibit transmission of a specific signal to the cell interior. Here...
Tamoxifen (Tam) was developed as a ligand and modulator of estrogen receptor α (ERα) and is one of the main drugs used globally for the hormonotherapy of breast cancers. Besides ERα, Tam also binds with high affinity to the microsomal antiestrogen binding site (AEBS). The AEBS is a hetero-oligomeric proteinaceous complex with cholesterol-5,6-epoxide hydrolase (ChEH) activity that is associated with...
Lipids are unevenly distributed within eukaryotic cells, allowing various processes to work in an optimized membrane environment. Rather than following vesicular trafficking pathways, certain lipids are transported by lipid transfer proteins (LTPs), some at sites of close apposition of two organelles called membrane contact sites (MCSs). An important question is whether or not LTPs are able to convey...
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