Where Does Cholesterol Synthesis Occur? An Overview

Cholesterol levels in the body stem from two sources, biosynthesis and dietary intake. The most of cholesterol used by healthy adults is synthesized in the liver, which generated 70% of the overall daily cholesterol requirement (~1 gram) and the other 30% comes from dietary intake.

Cholesterol Synthesis And Regulation – What Are The Steps Involved?

Cholesterol is a major section of cell membranes as well as it is a necessary precursor for steroid hormone synthesis. All 27 carbons are resultant from acetyl-CoA, and the initial synthesis assumes the concentration of acetyl-CoA to mevalonate.

Cholesterol synthesis which is also known as cholesterologenesis generally occurs in the cytosol which is a part of the cytoplasm and in the endoplasmic reticulum.

The cytosol is the liquid medium included within a cell and the acetyl-CoA required can be acquired from numerous sources such as β-oxidation of fatty acids, the oxidation of ketogenic amino acids, such as lysine, and leucine as well as the pyruvate dehydrogenase response.

The procedure of cholesterol synthesis comprises 4 stages; however, only the primary stage is regulated and will be focused on.

Process Of Cholesterol Synthesis 

The initial phase of cholesterol synthesis shows the production of the intermediate mevalonate. The synthesis of mevalonate is the faithful and rate-limiting step in cholesterol development. In this procedure, two molecules of acetyl-CoA condense, making acetoacetyl-CoA, which then condenses with the third particle of acetyl-CoA to give the six-carbon compound β -hydroxy- β -methylglutaryl-CoA.

The dedicated step and main point of regulation of cholesterol synthesis include reduction of HMG-CoA to mevalonate, in a process that is translated by HMG-CoA reductase.

The following steps of the pathway proceed unregulated, and mevalonate is utilized to synthesize isoprenoid units (five-carbon units).

These five-carbon chains are connected in a head-to-tail fashion generating squalene, thirty carbons, which go through a cyclization effect after epoxidation. The lanosterol, cyclized product, passes through numerous reactions to produce the final product, cholesterol.

The HMG-CoA reductase is the main regulatory enzyme for cholesterol. This enzyme is strongly supervised by various types of regulation and can be affected by hormonal changes and cellular needs. This is also one of the major pharmacological targets for the organization of hypercholesterolemia. The statins are personal inhibitors of this enzyme.

Cholesterol Synthesis – Steps

HMGCR is the rate-limiting enzyme of the path. It is strongly regulated at posttranscriptional and transcriptional levels. Procedures such as phosphorylation–dephosphorylation, feedback from sterol as well as non-sterol metabolites of the pathway, and ubiquitination manage the movement and levels of HMGCR.

This enzyme is a pharmacological object of a class of drugs called statins, which are generally utilized to lesser cholesterol by reducing cholesterol biosynthesis. Statins are aggressive inhibitors of the HMGCR enzyme.

The cholesterol biosynthesis path yields some molecules as intermediates that are necessary for other biological pathways. Geranylgeranyl and Farnesyl membrane anchors are essential for signaling proteins that control progression through the cell cycle (Edwards and Ericsson, 1999).

Ubiquinone and dolichols are other intermediates that play a vital role in electron transportation as well as in the synthesis of glycoproteins, correspondingly. Cholesterol can be extra modified into Vitamin D as well as steroid hormones.

Cholesterol synthesis can also occur in all cell types. Though, the liver shows the major site for de novo cholesterol synthesis giving up around 80% of total cholesterol synthesis in mammals.

Cholesterol is generated from acetyl-CoA via a difficult multistep procedure in which the 3-hydroxy-methylglutaryl-CoA reductase (HMG-CoA-R) mediates the rate-limiting step catalyzing the exchange of HMG-CoA to mevalonic acid. Insulin was revealed to decrease the expression of HMG-CoA-R in crucial isolated rat hepatocytes.

On the other hand, HMG-CoA-R expression and activity in the liver, as well as intestine, were present to be bigger in rats with diabetes mellitus.

These explanations recommended that enhanced synthesis of cholesterol is an offering factor to hypercholesterolemia linked with diabetes mellitus. This also offered the rationale for inhibiting HMG-CoA-R to lower plasma cholesterol in diabetic patients.