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[2] [3] The most familiar type of animal sterol is cholesterol, which is vital to the structure of the cell membrane, and functions as a precursor to fat-soluble vitamins and steroid hormones. While technically alcohols, sterols are classified by biochemists as lipids (fats in the broader sense of the term).
Lipids are a broad group of organic compounds which include fats, waxes, sterols, fat-soluble vitamins (such as vitamins A, D, E and K), monoglycerides, diglycerides, phospholipids, and others. The functions of lipids include storing energy, signaling, and acting as structural components of cell membranes.
Cholesterol is the principal sterol of all higher animals, distributed in body tissues, especially the brain and spinal cord, and in animal fats and oils. [3] [4]Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells [citation needed] and is an essential structural and signaling component of animal cell membranes.
Membrane lipids are a group of compounds (structurally similar to fats and oils) which form the lipid bilayer of the cell membrane. The three major classes of membrane lipids are phospholipids, glycolipids, and cholesterol. Lipids are amphiphilic: they have one end that is soluble in water ('polar') and an ending that is soluble in fat ...
Sterols can be present in the free form and as fatty acid esters and glycolipids. The bound form is usually hydrolyzed in the small intestines by pancreatic enzymes. [7] Some of the sterols are removed during the deodorization step of refining oils and fats, without, however, changing their relative composition. Sterols are therefore a useful ...
Although hopanoids do not rescue sterol deficiency, they are thought to increase membrane rigidity and decrease permeability. [9] [11] [12] Also, gammaproteobacteria and eukaryotic organisms such as lichens and bryophytes have been shown to produce both sterols and hopanoids, suggesting these lipids may have other distinct functions.
This functions include signaling, vesicular trafficking, lipid metabolism and nonvesicular sterol transport. [12] ORPs have been studied in many organisms cells as human cells or yeast. In yeast, where organelle membranes are closely apposed it has been proposed that ORPs work as sterol transporters, though only a few ORPs actually bind sterols ...
Sterols contribute to membrane fluidity by hindering the packing together of phospholipids. However, this model has now been superseded, as through the study of lipid polymorphism it is now known that the behaviour of lipids under physiological (and other) conditions is not simple. [citation needed]