Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.
A significant fraction of cholesterol that accumulates in atherosclerotic lesions is actually oxidized to yield a number of derivatives, named oxysterols, which are provided with much stronger biochemical effects than the parental compound. Of note, an increasing bulk of studies is giving evidence of accumulation of oxysterols in a number of other chronic disease processes including quite common neurodegenerative diseases. In particular, defined cholesterol oxidation products, among those of main interest in pathophysiology, may strongly activate the mitochondrial pathway of apoptotic death. Modulation by oxysterols of various pro- and anti-apoptotic molecules involved in that pathway are hereafter examined under the light of the most recent relevant literature.