Defects of cholesterol homeostasis in the adult brain are linked to neurodegenerative diseases like niemann pick type c disease or alzheimers disease madra and sturley 2010 block et al 2010 di paolo and kim 2011 wang et al 2011 it is well established that neuronal cells regulate their cholesterol content by an exquisite feedback mechanism that balances biosynthesis import and excretion cells sense their level of cholesterol by membrane bound transcription factors known as . Defects in brain cholesterol metabolism has been shown to be implicated in neurodegenerative diseases such as alzheimers disease ad huntingtons disease hd parkinsons disease pd and some cognitive deficits typical of the old age the brain contains large amount of cholesterol but the cholesterol metabolism and its complex homeostasis regulation are currently poorly understood this review will seek to integrate current knowledge about the brain cholesterol metabolism with . Disruption to cholesterol homeostasis leads to coronary heart disease atherosclerosis and metabolic syndrome strong evidence suggests that cholesterol also has a crucial role in the brain as various neurological and neurodegenerative disorders including alzheimers huntingtons and parkinson diseases are associated with disruptions to cholesterol homeostasis here we summarize the current . Disorders in brain cholesterol homeostasis abstract the mevalonate mva cholesterol pathway is crucial for central nervous system cns development and function and consequently any dysfunction of this fundamental metabolic pathway is likely to provoke pathologic changes in the brain mutations in genes directly involved in page 8 31 file type pdf cholesterol homeostasis and disorders in