Cholesterol-to-Coprostanol Conversion by the Gut Microbiota: What We Know, Suspect, and Ignore.

ABSTRACT: Every day, up to 1 g of cholesterol, composed of the unabsorbed dietary cholesterol, the biliary cholesterol secretion, and cholesterol of cells sloughed from the intestinal epithelium, enters the colon. All cholesterol arriving in the large intestine can be metabolized by the colonic bacteria. Cholesterol is mainly converted into coprostanol, a non-absorbable sterol that is excreted in the feces. Interestingly, cholesterol-to-coprostanol conversion in human populations is variable, with a majority of high converters and a minority of low or inefficient converters. Two major pathways have been proposed, one involving the direct stereospecific reduction of the Δ5 double bond direct while the indirect pathway involves the intermediate formation of 4-cholelesten-3-one and coprostanone. Despit

SUBMITTER: Juste C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8468837 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature