Abstract
Cholesterol is a precursor for the production of vitamin D3 in the skin and of bile acids and steroid hormones in the liver. Like fatty acids, it is an essential component of cell membranes. About two-thirds of cholesterol is produced in the liver, and the remaining one-third comes from the food we eat. Genetic factors play an important role in the regulation of cholesterol levels. More than 120 gene loci of biological and clinical relevance in this context have become known to date (Blattmann et al. 2013).
Chapter PDF
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Mathias, D. (2016). Cholesterol. In: Staying Healthy From 1 to 100. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49195-9_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-49195-9_17
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-662-49194-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-662-49195-9
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)