CHOLESTEROL DEPOSITION IN PENICILLIUM SPP.

Abstract

The absence of chloroform-extractable cholesterol in submerged cultures or resting mycelial suspensions which were supplemented with the sterol is not evidence for metabolism of the substance by molds. Both broth cultures and washed mycelium of the molds used in these studies could make cholesterol un-extractable with chloroform. However, neither manometric studies using C414-cholesterol nor extensive steroid analyses revealed any products of cholesterol metabolism.Steroid uptake by washed cell preparations of these molds depends on the presence of a usable energy source or a high rate of endogenous respiration. Either starving or autoclaving destroyed the ability of washed mycelium to cause cholesterol to disappear from aqueous suspensions.Only a small fraction of the cholesterol removed from suspensions by the mycelium could be recovered by sonic vibration of the cells.