Knowledge of cholesterol and its interaction with protein molecules is of fundamental importance in both animal and human biology. This book contains 22 chapters, dealing in depth with structural and functional aspects of the currently known and extremely diverse unrelated families of cholesterol-binding and cholesterol transport proteins. By drawing together this range of topics the Editor has attempted to correlate this broad field of study for the first time. Technical aspects are given considerable emphasis, particularly in relation cholesterol reporter molecules and to the isolation and study of membrane cholesterol- and sphingomyelin-rich "raft" domains. Cell biological, biochemical and clinical topics are included in this book, which serve to emphasize the acknowledged and important benefits to be gained from the study of cholesterol and cholesterol-binding proteins within the biomedical sciences and the involvement of cholesterol in several clinical disorders.

It is hoped that by presenting this topic in this integrated manner that an appreciation of the fact that there is much more that needs to be taken into account, studied and understood than the widely discussed "bad and good cholesterol" associated, respectively, with the low- and high-density lipoproteins, LDL and HDL.

Inhalt
CholesterolProtein Interaction: Methods and Cholesterol Reporter Molecules.- Cholesterol in Alzheimer's Disease and other Amyloidogenic Disorders.- Cholesterol-Binding Viral Proteins in Virus Entry and Morphogenesis.- SterolProtein Interactions in Cholesterol and Bile Acid Synthesis.- Cholesterol Oxidase: Structure and Function.- Oxysterol-Binding Proteins.- High Density Lipoprotein StructureFunction and Role in Reverse Cholesterol Transport.- Lipoprotein Modification and Macrophage Uptake: Role of Pathologic Cholesterol Transport in Atherogenesis.- Cholesterol Interaction with Proteins That Partition into Membrane Domains: An Overview.- Caveolin, Sterol Carrier Protein-2, Membrane Cholesterol-Rich Microdomains and Intracellular Cholesterol Trafficking.- Cholesterol in NiemannPick Type C disease.- Protein Mediators of Sterol Transport Across Intestinal Brush Border Membrane.- Cholesterol at the Endoplasmic Reticulum: Roles of the Sigma-1 Receptor Chaperone and Implications thereof in Human Diseases.- Prominin-1: A Distinct Cholesterol-Binding Membrane Protein and the Organisation of the Apical Plasma Membrane of Epithelial Cells.- Mammalian StAR-Related Lipid Transfer (START) Domains with Specificity for Cholesterol: Structural Conservation and Mechanism of Reversible Binding.- Membrane Cholesterol in the Function and Organization of G-Protein Coupled Receptors.- Cholesterol Effects on Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor: Cellular Aspects.- Cholesterol and Myelin Biogenesis.- Cholesterol and Ion Channels.- The Cholesterol-Dependent Cytolysin Family of Gram-Positive Bacterial Toxins.- Cholesterol Specificity of Some Heptameric ?-Barrel Pore-Forming Bacterial Toxins: Structural and Functional Aspects.- Cholesterol-Binding Toxins and Anti-cholesterol Antibodiesas Structural Probes for Cholesterol Localization.