Abstract
CHOLESTEROL, almost water insoluble, normally occurs in the body bound to lipoprotein, or incorporated in lipid aggregations such as bile micelles, or within certain biomembranes. When cholesterol levels are abnormally high, single crystals of the monohydrate tend to deposit; in bile, clumps of these crystals form gallstones1. Crystals of cholesterol monohydrate also occur in atherosclerotic lesions2. Earlier reports of crystal data for cholesterol monohydrate are not all consistent, although they indicate a structure of unusual complexity (refs 1, 3–5 and S. H. Kim and W. Warrant, personal communication). The crystal structure (Fig. 1)has now been determined by a molecular replacement method which was developed primarily for protein crystallography6.
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References
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CRAVEN, B. Crystal structure of cholesterol monohydrate. Nature 260, 727–729 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1038/260727a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/260727a0
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