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Lipid homeostasis

Asters: rising stars in the cholesterol universe

Nature Metabolism volume 5, pages 16–18 (2023)Cite this article

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Intracellular trafficking of cholesterol is essential for its uptake, storage and export. In this issue of Nature Metabolism, Xiao et al. provide powerful evidence for the importance of hepatic GRAMD1/Aster transporters in maintaining systemic cholesterol homeostasis.

Where would we be without cholesterol? Our single most abundant lipid species is vital, yet lethal in excess. Accordingly, we have evolved an elaborate myriad of mechanisms to keep it in check. Integral to cholesterol homeostasis is non-vesicular transport of this water-insoluble molecule between the membranes of cell organelles. Especially critical is the precipitous gradient from the plasma membrane (PM), where most cholesterol resides, to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), where most homeostatic mechanisms are housed.

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Fig. 1: Role of Aster proteins in mouse hepatic cholesterol transport.

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Acknowledgements

The Brown Laboratory is supported by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant DP170101178. H.W.C. is in receipt of a UNSW Science Writing Scholarship.

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  1. School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Hudson W. Coates & Andrew J. Brown

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  1. Hudson W. Coates
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Correspondence to Andrew J. Brown.

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Coates, H.W., Brown, A.J. Asters: rising stars in the cholesterol universe. Nat Metab 5, 16–18 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42255-022-00717-3

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