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| Cholesterol: Cholesterol needed for cell signaling |
Cholesterol needed for cell signaling...KEYWORDS: cholesterol studies what cholesterol is used for why the body needs cholesterol
Cholesterol, maligned for its role in heart disease, is needed for healthy cell membranes and for anchoring cell signaling pathways, say Texas scientists.
Cholesterol is critical to cell signaling in at least two ways. It helps organize signaling machinery at the surface of cells and helps keep a critical signaling protein outside of the cells under control.
It exercises control by holding together a group of enzymes that deactivates extracellular signal-related kinase, or ERK. Overactive ERK is associated with multiple cancers.
When the amount of cholesterol is normal, the amount of active ERK is properly managed. When cholesterol gets too low, however, the complex falls apart, leading to abnormally high levels of active ERK.
"Cell signals have to be tightly controlled," said Dr. Richard Anderson, chairman of cell biology at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and senior author of the study. "If the signaling machines do not work, which can happen when the cell doesn't have enough cholesterol, the cell gets the wrong information, and disease results."
The research is reported in Science.
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