Cholesterol

Cholesterol is a sterol, a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell membranes. Cholesterol is a membrane constituent widely found in biological systems and serves the unique purpose of modulating membrane fluidity, elasticity, as well as permeability. The addition of cholesterol to liposome bilayers prevents a lipid exchange and has an additional stabilizing effect.