Studies of cholesterol biosynthesis. 2. Distribution of acetone carbon in the ring structure

Abstract
[C 14] Cholesterol synthesized by rat-liver slices from [carboxy-C14] acetate and [alpha-C14] acetate was degraded partially. It is concluded that C atoms 2,4, 6 and 10 are derived from the carboxyl C and C atoms 1,3, 5 and 19 from the methyl C of acetate. The bearing of these results on the hypotheses concerning the formation of cholesterol from isoprenoid units via squalene is discussed.