Natural sterols often occur as a heterogeneous mixture of homologs, which had disturbed the progress of steroid research. Development and application of GC methodology overcame this difficulty and enabled us to obtain detailed sterol profiles. Together, fine synthesis of stereo-defined isomers and homologs of steroids having oxygenated side chains allowed us to compare them with natural samples...

Previous studies in man have indicated that administration of either plant sterols or unsaturated dietary fats causes decreases in certain serum lipids. This report presents the results of a long-term 7-phase study of the comparative effects of the single and combined administration of plant sterols (p-sitosterol) and a highly unsaturated vegetable oil (safflower oil) in 15 ambulatory subjects....

Viruses recruit cellular membranes and subvert cellular proteins involved in lipid biosynthesis to build viral replicase complexes and replication organelles. Among the lipids, sterols are important components of membranes, affecting the shape and curvature of membranes. In this paper, the tombusvirus replication protein is shown to co-opt cellular Oxysterol-binding protein related proteins (OR...

Previous studies in man have indicated that administration of either plant sterols or unsaturated dietary fats causes decreases in certain serum lipids. This report presents the results of a long-term 7-phase study of the comparative effects of the single and combined administration of plant sterols (p-sitosterol) and a highly unsaturated vegetable oil (safflower oil) in 15 ambulatory subjects....

Previous studies in man have indicated that administration of either plant sterols or unsaturated dietary fats causes decreases in certain serum lipids. This report presents the results of a long-term 7-phase study of the comparative effects of the single and combined administration of plant sterols (p-sitosterol) and a highly unsaturated vegetable oil (safflower oil) in 15 ambulatory subjects....

As a simple model of rafts in plant cells, the effect of stigmasterol, one of the predominant sterols in plant plasma membranes, on the phase behavior of dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC) multilayers has been studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and freeze-fracture electron microscopy (FFEM) techniques. A partial phase diagram of the binary system has...