I have come across to alternative methods to analyse mouse brain cholesterol content, one is staining with filipin and the other uses the Amplex® Red Cholesterol Assay Kit by Life Technologies. The kit is designed to measure serum cholesterol levels, but some papers mention its use for brain homogenates. However, they don't specify how the brain tissue was processed (Does it require extraction? What buffer was used for homogenisation? etc.) Does anyone have protocols that work well? Many thanks in advance!
Brain Cholesterol Metabolism, Oxysterols, and Dementia
Timothy M. Hughes,* Caterina Rosano, Rhobert W. Evans, and Lewis H. Kuller
Abstract
Cholesterol metabolism is implicated in the etiology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and amyloid production in the brain. While brain cholesterol cannot be measured directly in vivo, the oxysterol, 24S-hydroxycholesterol (24-OHC), is the predominant metabolite of brain cholesterol and can be measured in the blood. The aim of this review is to evaluate plasma 24-OHC as a potential biomarker of AD risk and discuss factors related to its levels in the brain and blood. This systematic review examines studies published between 1950 and June 2012 that examined the relationship between plasma 24-OHC, cognition, brain structure, and dementia using the following key words (“24S-hydroxycholesterol” or “24-hydroxycholesterol”) and (“Brain” or “Cognitive”). We found a total of 28 studies of plasma 24-OHC and neurodegenerative disease, including a subset of 12 that used dementia as a clinical endpoint. These studies vary in the direction of the observed associations. Results suggest plasma 24-OHC may be higher in the early stages of cognitive impairment and lower in more advanced stages of AD when compared to cognitively normal controls. Measures of 24-OHC in the blood may be an important potential marker for cholesterol metabolism in the brain and risk of AD. Further studies of plasma 24-OHC and dementia must account for the stage of disease, establish the temporal trends in oxysterol concentrations, and employ neuroimaging modalities to assess the structural and metabolic changes occurring in the brain prior to the onset of cognitive impairment.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4354887/
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