Week 8: Cholesterol Flashcards
What does cholesterol served as a precursor for?
- Steroid hormones
- Bile salts
- Vitamin D
Why isn’t cholesterol a dietary requirement?
It can be made de novo by most cells
What is the importance of the liver in regards to cholesterol?
Regulates cholesterol homeostasis
Where does cholesterol come from before the liver?
- Dietary intake
- De novo synthesis
- Delivery from extrahepatic tissue
How is cholesterol eliminated from the liver?
- Unmodified cholesterol goes into bile to be converted into bile salts
- Salts or secreted into the intestinal lumen
- Inserted into the plasma membrane
- Used as a lipoproteins components to carry lipids
What is amphipathic?
Both hydrophobic and hydrophillic
Describe the characteristics of cholesterol?
- Amphipathic
- 3 six membered and 1 five membered fused rings
- Hydroxyl C-3, Side chain C8-10 at C-17
What is the major sterol of animal tissue?
Cholesterol
Where does cholesterol synthesis occur?
Cytosol and SER
What are the steps of the eukaryotic cholesterol biosynthesis?
- 3 Acetates (2-C) condense into mevalonate (6-C) = Requires 12 NADPH
- Mevalonate converted into isoprene (5-C) = 18 ATP
- 6 isoprenes polymerize to form a 30C linear squalene (activated isoprene) = Requires 1 NADPH
- Squalene cyclizes to form the 4 rings called cholesterol = Requires 1 NADPH
How much energy is required to make acetyl-coa to cholesterol?
14 NADPH and 18 ATP
How do you synthesize mevalonate from acetyl-coa?
- 3 Acetyl-Coa thiolased into Acetoacyl-coa
- Acetoacyl-coa is synthesized by HMG-Coa to form HMG-Coa
- HMG-Coa used HMG-CoA reductase and 2 NADPH to form mevalonate
What enzyme would be the drug target for lowering cholesterol?
HMG-CoA reductase
What is the rate-limiting step form cholesterol synthesis?
HMG-CoA reducase
What are activators of cholesterol synthesis?
Insulin
What are the inhibitors of cholesterol synthesis?
Glucagon, Statin drugs, Epinephrine
What are the fates of cholesterol after synthesis?
- Can be converted to cholesterol esters and stored in intracellular lipid droplets
- Converted in bile acids and salts
- Adrenal cortex
- Reproductive tissues
- Incorporated into plasma membrane
What is responsible for making steroid hormones by nuclear receptors?
Liver
What steroid helps with penetration and development of mammary tissue?
Progesterone
What steroid helps with liver metabolism, immune function, and adaptation to stress?
Cortisol
What steroid helps with ion transport in kidneys and BP regulation?
Aldosterone
What steroid hormone helps with development of male reproductive organs?
Testosterone
What steroid hormone helps with development of female reproductive organs?
Estradiol
What is the sunshine vitamin?
D
What is caused due to a Vitamin D deficiency?
Rickets
What is the active form of vitamin D the binds to receptor that affects gene expression?
Vitamin D3
What kind of process is bile acids and salts synthesis?
Anabolic requiring NADPH
Where are bile acids and salts produced?
Liver
Where are bile acids and salts stored?
Released into the duodenum and stored in the galbladder
Where are lipid emulsified?
Ileum
How does cholesterol convert into bile salts?
Emulsification
What is chloestyramine?
Bile acid squestrant that bind to bile salts in intestine preventing reabsorption and promotes excretion that can lower cholesterol levels
What other bile acid sequestrant can increase excretion?
Dietary fiber
Describe bile acid synthesis
- Cholesterol is converted in cholate
- Cholate (bile acid) modified into more water soluble bile salts (taurocholate and glycocholate)
- Taurine comes from diet or Cys and Met
- Glycine would help glycocholate synthesis
- Bile salts are secreted into small intestine from bile duct
What is the most abundant bile acid in humans?
Cholate
Why is plasma cholesterol in esterized form?
The ester from a joined fatty acid makes it more hydrophobic than cholesterol preventing them from entering membranes
How are cholesteryl esters transported?
Lipoproteins
What is a lipoprotein?
Lipid-protein complex that vary in size, density, and composition help transport fats to organs
Describe the composition of a lipoprotein?
Spherical core of neutral lipids coated with unesterfied cholesterol, phospholipids and apolipoproteins
What are apolipoproteins?
Specify the site of peripheral uptake of the lipoproteins by mediating the binding of receptors.
Protein part of the lipoprotein