Manipulating cholesterol status within cells

Abstract

Cellular cholesterol levels are intricately controlled to maintain homeostasis. Here, we describe ways in which cellular cholesterol status can be manipulated for the study of cholesterol homeostasis, including sterol starvation (by culturing cells in lipoprotein-deficient serum and pretreating/treating with the cholesterol-lowering drug, statin) and sterol enrichment (using cholesterol complexed to cyclodextrin, and low-density lipoprotein). We also describe how to prepare lipoprotein-deficient serum and complex cholesterol to cyclodextrin.