We usually use choloroform at a concentration of 100mg/ml for the initial dissolution and then its further dilutions can be made in your specific solvent (we make in cell culture media)

Its not feasible to solubilize cholesterol in water because its very hydrophobic, try anyother solvent

Hi

This lipid will not dissolve in water by adjustig pH or temperature unless you make any specific drug delivery using organic solvents.

Here is the solubility of Cholesterol MSDS:

Cholesterol monohydrate is practically insoluble in water (less then 0.5 mg/100 ml of water); slightly soluble in alcohol (1.29% w/w at 20 °C), more soluble in hot alcohol (100 g of saturated 96% alcoholic solution contains 28 g at 80 °C). Also one gram dissolves in 2.8 ml of ether, in 4.5 ml of chloroform, and in 1.5 ml of pyridine.

The product is soluble in acetone, dioxane, ethyl acetate, benzene, petroleum

ether, oils, fats, and in aqueous solutions of bile salts.

Hope this will help..

Hi,

You did not mention the need for you to dissolve cholesterol and use. You can dissolve choesterol in a small volume of alcohol and add required amount of distilled water or buffer. I think this will give you a suitable solution (emulsion?). You may want to see a research article @ http://www.clinchem.org/content/20/4/482.full.pdf  though not sure if it can help you.

How do you plan to use the cholesterol? 

For example, if you need to deliver it into cells - cholesterol is typically complexed to cyclodextrin, which can then be easily dissolved in water. 

Hi,

you can dissolve it in 1% Triton in CHCl3 then Dry under  N2 until CHCl3 is completely evaporated after that Add  MQ-H2O and Incubate for 5 min at 60 C and by doing that you can make  all the lipid including cholesterol water soluble considering the concentration of lipids in your samples you adjust the triton and water...

Hope it help you

Cholesterol, as noted above by our colleagues, is virtually insoluble in water and lacks any groups that charges can be altered by adjusting the pH.  I think Anika's point about cyclodextran is one approach as the cholesterol will be in the cyclodextran molecule and come out essentially when it bumps into a suitable acceptor such as a cell membrane.  

However, as noted by Amaravadi, one important question is why is this important?  When posing a question such as this, it is important first to convey the reasons behind the question.  Do you want to incubate cells with cholesterol?  If so, adding it in  EtOH is one solution, but even then the cholesterol will not truly be in solution as the EtOH disperses.  The cyclodextran is another route as well.  Additionally, various detergents can be used, similar to the classic mechanisms of dispersing TAG droplets in a sink full of dishes, detergents will keep the cholesterol dispersed in solution.  So, a water soluble detergent would be another viable approach. 

All in all though, framing the question would be most helpful to achieve the best results from the world's scientific community.

Without organic solvens and/ or detergents only with water it's not possible.

You have to be more precise with your needness. For which proposes you"ll like to use an cholesterol containing solution?

BR

from Moscow

Thank you.

I am probing the interaction of various molecules in a liquid interface. The material that i am using is an O/W emulsion. I want to know the effect of cholesterol in an oil/water interface. Since the continuous phase is water, i need to have a sample which is water soluble. That's why i want cholesterol which is soluble in water. 

Hello Zaibu,

I suggest using cyclodextrin which is easily solubilized in water. Another suggestion is to use a small amount of organic solvent, such as hexane or isopropanol (0,3 mg cholesterol with 0.1-0.5 mL organic solvent) and add water to terminate the solution (99.9-99.5 mL water). I do not know if these solvents interfere with your system, need to evaluate this issue.

Good lucky

Thank you all for your valuable suggestions.

You could resolve the cholesterol in chloroform with triton 2%, after evaporation you could resolve in pbs or water