The Bile Acid Synthesis Pathway Is Present and Functional in the Human Ovary
- Background: Bile acids, end products of the pathway for cholesterol elimination, are required for dietary lipid and fatsoluble vitamin absorption and maintain the balance between cholesterol synthesis in the liver and cholesterol excretion. They are composed of a steroid structure and are primarily made in the liver by the oxidation of cholesterol. Cholesterol is also highly abundant in the human ovarian follicle, where it is used in the formation of the sex steroids. Methodology/Principal Findings: Here we describe for the first time evidence that all aspects of the bile acid synthesis pathway are present in the human ovarian follicle, including the enzymes in both the classical and alternative pathways, the nuclear receptors known to regulate the pathway, and the end product bile acids. Furthermore, we provide functional evidence that bile acids are produced by the human follicular granulosa cells in response to cholesterol presence in the culture media. Conclusions/Significance: These findings establish a novel pathway present in the human ovarian follicle that has the capacity to compete directly with sex steroid synthesis.
Document Type: | Article |
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Language: | English |
Author: | Laura P. Smith, Maik Nierstenhoefer, Sang Wook Yoo, Alan S. Penzias, Edda Tobiasch, Anny Usheva |
Parent Title (English): | PLoS ONE |
Volume: | 4 |
Issue: | 10 |
Article Number: | e7333 |
Number of pages: | 6 |
ISSN: | 1932-6203 |
URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:1044-opus-17093 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0007333 |
PMID: | https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19806215 |
Publisher: | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
Place of publication: | San Francisco, CA, USA |
Publishing Institution: | Hochschule Bonn-Rhein-Sieg |
Date of first publication: | 2009/10/06 |
Copyright: | (c) 2009 Smith et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. |
Funding: | Fellowship funding to Laura Smith, NIH funding to Anny Usheva. |
Departments, institutes and facilities: | Fachbereich Angewandte Naturwissenschaften |
Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC): | 6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 61 Medizin und Gesundheit / 610 Medizin und Gesundheit |
Entry in this database: | 2015/08/21 |
Licence (German): | Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 3.0 |