Figure 8.

Effect of stigmasterol on mRNA levels (A) and cholesterol synthesis (B) in Y1-BS1. (A) Y1-BS1 cells were plated and treated with stigmasterol for 24 hours as indicated. Messenger RNA levels were quantified by real-time PCR as described in Methods. Values were expressed relative to untreated samples, which were arbitrarily standardized to 1. The experiment was repeated twice and similar results were obtained. (B) Y1-BS1 cells were treated with stigmasterol (50 μg/ml) or sterols (1 μg/ml 25-hydroxysterol plus 10 μg/ml cholesterol; 25-HC + C) for 24 hours. Cholesterol synthesis was measured by ¹⁴C acetate incorporation as described in Methods.