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Cholesterol has several fates:
A.
Most of the cholesterol synthesis in vertebrates takes place in the liver. A small fraction of the cholesterol made there is incorporated into the membranes of hepatocytes, but most of it is exported in one of three forms: as bile acids, biliary cholesterol, or cholesteryl esters.
B.
Small quantities of oxysterols such as 25-hydroxycholesterol are formed in the liver and act as regulators of cholesterol synthesis.
C.
In other tissues, cholesterol is converted into steroid hormones (in the adrenal cortex and gonads, for example) or vitamin D hormone (in the liver and kidney).
D.
Such hormones are extremely potent biological signals acting through nuclear receptor proteins.