Brain sterols

Although the sterols of normal adult brain are accounted for almost exclusively by free cholesterol, demyelination as a result, for example, of Wallerian degeneration or multiple sclerosis leads to a loss of cholesterol and the short-lived appearance of cholesterol esters (see Davison and Wajda, 1962). Other abnormalities of brain sterol composition are seen in the swayback lamb and in cerebral tumor tissue. 

For example, by using the nanostructure-initiator mass spectrometry, Patti and colleagues [130] detected intact cholesterol and its derivative molecules in situ to provide the first images of brain sterol localization in a knockout mouse model of 7-dehydrocholesterol reductase. Other nanomaterials (e.g silver nanoparticles) have also been used to analyze lipids directly from tissue samples [133], From a thin film of colloidal graphite on rat brain tissue, direct lipid profiling was performed by graphite-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry, which allowed to detect 22 HexCer species, whereas only eight HexCer species are detected with MALDI-TOF/MS [132], Chemically selective analysis for HexCer and ST species was successfully obtained. 

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