Liver X receptors (LXRs) are transcriptional regulators of cellular and systemic cholesterol homeostasis. Under conditions of excess cholesterol, LXR activation induces the expression of several genes involved in cholesterol efflux, facilitates cholesterol esterification by promoting fatty acid synthesis, and inhibits cholesterol uptake by the low-density lipoprotein receptor. The fact that sterol content is maintained in a narrow range in most cell types and in...
Tag Archives: cholesterol
Sponge full of cholesterol pushes animal life back to 650 million years
These barrel sponges have one hell of a pedigree. (credit: Albert Kok/Wikimedia)
The earliest chapters in the history of life are in some ways the most interesting, but also the hardest to read. The pages are badly stained and tattered, and the print was terribly small to begin with. You can occasionally trip on a dinosaur...