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Cholesterol
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Cholesterol is one of several fatty substances (lipids) found in the bloodstream. A person's total cholesterol is made up mainly of LDL-C and HDL- C. LDL-C is often called "bad" cholesterol because it can build up in the walls of the arteries and form plaque. Over time, the plaque can clog the arteries, resulting in a heart attack or stroke. HDL-C is often called "good" cholesterol because it helps keep LDL-C from building up in the arteries and because it protects against heart disease. Triglycerides are another form of fat in the blood, and may raise a person's risk of heart disease.
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Cholesterol is a waxy substance, one of the wide range of fats (lipids) present in the body. It is essential to life. Cholesterol is an important component of all cell membranes, with about 25% of the body’s total cholesterol in the cell membranes of the nervous system, where it is a major component of the fatty sheaths that insulate nerves. It ... provides the basic skeleton for the synthesis of many hormones – the sex steroids, such as oestradiol and testosterone, the steroid hormones synthesised by the adrenal gland, for example cortisol, as well as the precursor of vitamin D (7-dehydrocholesterol). Cholesterol is also an essential precursor of the bile acids and is therefore vital to fat digestion. An adult body contains about 150g of cholesterol.
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Cholesterol has a molecular formula of C27H45OH. This molecule is composed of three regions (shown in the picture above): a hydrocarbon tail (shown in blue), a ring structure region with 4 hydrocarbon rings (shown in green), and a hydroxyl group (shown in red.).
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Each week of football season the NFL Cholesterol Screen Team named several NFL players as nominees for the NFL.com All-Heart Player of the Week award to recognize heartfelt performances on the field. The fans voted on the winning player and the NFL Cholesterol Screen Team recognized the winning player by donating 250 cholesterol tests to a medical facility in his local community. Today, to mark the culmination of the first season of All-Heart awards, Brian Griese of the Denver Broncos was named the NFL.com All-Heart Performance of the Year award winner. To acknowledge this honor, an additional 2,000 cholesterol tests and a cholesterol-testing machine were donated to University of Colorado, Health Sciences Center School of Nursing in Denver. In addition, the NFL Cholesterol Screen Team will provide 150 cholesterol tests to a hospital or clinic in each U.S. city with an NFL franchise, so that NFL fans nationwide can benefit from the efforts of this unique program. In total, the NFL Screen Team donated more than 10,000 free cholesterol tests to medical facilities nationwide during the season.
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Cholesterol is ubiquitous in the human body, where it plays structural and metabolic roles. Together with phospholipid, cholesterol is present in every cell membrane. In the adrenals, cholesterol is converted to adrenocortical hormones such as cortisone. In the gonads, cholesterol is converted to the appropriate sex hormone—estradiol in women, testosterone in men. The cholesterol in skin is the precursor of 7-dehydrocholesterol, which is ultimately converted to vitamin D. The major catabolic products of cholesterol are the bile acids—cholic and chenodeoxycholic. These are designated as the primary bile acids; they are metabolized in the liver to deoxycholic and lithocholic acids.
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Cholesterol is transported in the plasma predominantly as cholesteryl esters associated with lipoproteins. Dietary cholesterol is transported from the small intestine to the liver within chylomicrons. Cholesterol synthesized by the liver, as well as any dietary cholesterol in the liver that exceeds hepatic needs, is transported in the serum within LDLs. The liver synthesizes VLDLs and these are converted to LDLs through the action of endothelial cell-associated lipoprotein lipase. Cholesterol found in plasma membranes can be extracted by HDLs and esterified by the HDL-associated enzyme LCAT. The cholesterol acquired from peripheral tissues by HDLs can then be transferred to VLDLs and LDLs via the action of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (apo-D) which is associated with HDLs.
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Cholesterol