Sterol O-acyltransferase catalyzes the chemical reaction: Thus, the two substrates of this enzyme are acyl-CoA and cholesterol, whereas its two products are CoA and cholesteryl ester.
Acyl-CoA cholesterol acyl transferase EC 2.3.1.26, more simply referred to as ACAT, also known as sterol O-acyltransferase (SOAT), belongs to the class of enzymes known as acyltransferases.
ACAT also plays an important role in foam cell formation and atherosclerosis by participating in accumulating cholesterol esters in macrophages and vascular tissue.
A follow-up study reports that SOAT1 RNAi reduced cellular SOAT1 protein and cholesteryl ester levels while causing a slight increase in free cholesterol content of endoplasmic reticulum membranes.
[3] In another study, non-human primates revealed a positive correlation between liver cholesteryl ester secretion rate and the development of coronal artery atherosclerosis.
The results of the experiment are indicative that under all of the conditions of cellular cholesterol availability tested, the relative level of SOAT2 expression affects the cholesteryl ester content, and therefore the atherogenecity of nascent apoB-containing lipoproteins.
Mitotic cell growth and spore germination are not compromised when these genes are deleted, but diploids that are homozygous for an ARE2 null mutation exhibit a decrease in sporulation efficiency.