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The Effect Of Oxysterols On The Body

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Recently, research on the impacts of oxysterols has been piqued by its complicated and diverse role in immunity, apoptosis, cholesterol turnover, and atherosclerosis (13). Oxysterols are cholesterol derivatives containing an additional oxygen or oxide functional group, but are otherwise structurally similar to cholesterol. They are commonly found in foods that have undergone processing such as dried eggs, powdered milk, and cheeses (13). They can be produced non-enzymatically from attack by reactive oxygen species or enzymatically by the cytochrome P450 system (13). Oxysterols are absorbed from the digestive tract and can be packaged into chylomicrons just like regular cholesterol. One of the roles of oxysterols is to contribute to bile acid synthesis by acting as intermediates in cholesterol catabolism.
Many research articles have characterized the oxysterol 25-OH-cholesterol (25-OH-Chol) as the most atherogenic due to its presence in macrophage foam cells extracted from atherosclerotic plaque. Other reports, however, view the oxysterol as participating in a defense mechanism against lesion development (14). This specific oxysterol can speed up degradation of HMG-CoA reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol synthesis, and can sense cholesterol accumulation. As cholesterol accumulates, oxysterols can bind to alpha liver X receptors (LXRα), which regulates the expression of 7α-hydroxylase (15). This enzyme is the rate-limiting enzyme in cholesterol

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