{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,10]],"date-time":"2026-10-10T04:15:32Z","timestamp":1791605732534,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":117,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,15]],"date-time":"2019-05-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1557878400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000009","name":"Foundation for the National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["P30 EY001931"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["P30 EY001931"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000009","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000009","name":"Foundation for the National Institutes of Health","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["R01 EY015526"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["R01 EY015526"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000009","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The plasma membranes of the human lens fiber cell are overloaded with cholesterol that not only saturates the phospholipid bilayer of these membranes but also leads to the formation of pure cholesterol bilayer domains. Cholesterol level increases with age, and for older persons, it exceeds the cholesterol solubility threshold, leading to the formation of cholesterol crystals. All these changes occur in the normal lens without too much compromise to lens transparency. If the cholesterol content in the cell membranes of other organs increases to extent where cholesterol crystals forma, a pathological condition begins. In arterial cells, minute cholesterol crystals activate inflammasomes, induce inflammation, and cause atherosclerosis development. In this review, we will indicate possible factors that distinguish between beneficial and negative cholesterol action, limiting cholesterol actions to those performed through cholesterol in cell membranes and by cholesterol crystals.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu11051083","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,16]],"date-time":"2019-05-16T11:21:22Z","timestamp":1558005682000},"page":"1083","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":44,"title":["Why Is Very High Cholesterol Content Beneficial for the Eye Lens but Negative for Other Organs?"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2358-4099","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Justyna","family":"Widomska","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biophysics, Medical University of Lublin, Jaczewskiego 4, 20-090 Lublin, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Witold K.","family":"Subczynski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biophysics, Medical College of Wisconsin, 8701 Watertown Plank Road, Milwaukee, WI 53226, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2019,5,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"600","DOI":"10.1016\/S0022-2275(20)34347-9","article-title":"Membrane cholesterol and phospholipid in consecutive concentric sections of human lenses","volume":"26","author":"Li","year":"1985","journal-title":"J. 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