The Intermediary Metabolism of Cholesterol

Abstract

Animal tissues synthesize cholesterol from metabolities of small molecular size, principally cholesterol. This synthetic process is known to take place in the liver but may also occur in other organs. In all tissues, with the exception of brain and nerve, cholesterol is continually regenerated. Cholesterol is the parent substance which the animal organism uses to produce bile acids, progesterone and possibly also other steroid hormones. The catabolism of cholesterol leads to the formation of several saturated, metabolically inert sterols, cholestenone presumably being the common intermediate.