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8703266 
Journal Article 
Inhibitors of cholesterol synthesis and myelin formation 
Smith, ME; Hasinoff, CM; Fumagalli, R 
1970 
1 
Lipids
ISSN: 0024-4201
EISSN: 1558-9307 
5 
8 
665-671 
English 
Inhibitors of cholesterol biosynthesis AY 9944 and 20,25 diazacholesterol were administered by stomach tube to suckling rats in varying doses during the time of rapid myelination (15-22 days of age). Purified myelin was prepared from the brains and spinal cords, and the sterol content analyzed. Up to 50% of the myelin sterol consisted of desmosterol in rats treated with 20,25 diazacholesterol, while 7-dehydrocholesterol comprised at least one third of the myelin sterol in rats administered AY 9944. Myelin from rats treated with both compounds contained desmosterol, 7-dehydrocholesterol, Δ5,7,24 cholestatriene-3-β-ol and an unknown sterol, the four comprising about 45% of the total sterol. The proportion of phospholipid: galactolipid-total sterol in myelin from the drug-treated rats was not significantly different from the normal, although much less myelin was recovered. Brain and spinal cord slices from 22 to 25-day rats pretreated with inhibitors showed decreased uptake of U-14C-glucose into all myelin components. The decreased uptake was approximately proportional in all lipids and the protein was also affected. It is proposed that myelin composition is fixed, and that a deficiency of one of the lipid components will limit the assembly of the whole lipid portion of the membrane. 1969 American Oil Chemists' Society.