Obesity and Cancer: 27-Hydroxycholesterol, the Missing Link

Abstract

Obesity is currently affecting more than 40% of the Americans, and if it progresses with this rate, soon one out of two Americans will be obese. Obesity is an important risk factor for several disorders including cardiovascular disease, the first cause of death in the United States. Cancer follows as the second deadliest disease, and a link between obesity and cancer has been suggested. However, it is very hard to establish an exact connection between obesity and cancers due to the multifactorial nature of obesity. Hypercholesterolemia is a comorbidity of obesity and also linked to several cancers. Recently a cholesterol metabolite 27-hydroxycholesterol (27HC) was found to be an endogenous selective estrogen receptor modulator (SERM), which opened new doors toward several interesting studies on the role of this molecule in biological disorders. It is speculated that 27HC might be the missing link in the obesity and cancer chain. Here, we explored the effects of 27-hydroxycholesterol on obesity and cancers with a focus on the SERM capacity of 27HC.