Fatty Acid Oxidation
Lipid Biosynthesis
Despite a lot of bad press, cholesterol remains an essential and important biomolecule in animals. As much as half of the membrane lipid in a cellular membrane is cholesterol, where it helps maintain constant fluidity and electrical properties. Cholesterol is especially prominent in membranes of the nervous system.
Cholesterol also serves as a precursor to other important molecules. Bile acids aid in lipid absorption during digestion. Steroid hormones all derive from cholesterol, including the adrenal hormones that maintain fluid balance; Vitamin D, which is an important regulator of calcium status; and the male and female sex hormones. Although humans wouldn't survive in one sense or another without cholesterol metabolites, cholesterol brings with it some well-known side effects. Doctors find cholesterol derivatives, being essentially insoluble in water, in the deposits (plaque) that characterize diseased arteries.
