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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2018 Jul 1.
Published in final edited form as: Trends Endocrinol Metab. 2017 Apr 12;28(7):485–496. doi: 10.1016/j.tem.2017.03.002

Figure 1. Structures of common oxysterols.

Figure 1

Oxysterols are formed by both enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions. The enzymatic pathways are mediated by enzymes from the cytochrome P450 (CYP) family and cholesterol-25-hydroxylase (CH25H). Enzymatic oxidation of cholesterol gives rise to side-chain oxysterols (blue), and ring-oxysterols are generated by non-enzymatic oxidation mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS, red). Some oxysterols are generated by both enzymatic and non-enzymatic reactions (purple).