Effects of cholesterol in stress-related neuronal death-a statistical analysis perspective

The association between plasma cholesterol levels and the development of dementia continues to be an important topic of discussion in the scientific community, while the results in the literature vary significantly. We study the effect of reducing oxidized neuronal cholesterol on the lipid raft structure of plasma membrane. The levels of plasma membrane cholesterol were reduced by treating the intact cells with methyl-�-cyclodextrin (M�CD). The relationship between the cell viability with varying levels of M�CD was then examined. The viability curves are well described by a modified form of the empirical Gompertz law of mortality. A detailed statistical analysis is performed on the fitting results, showing that increasing M�CD concentration has a minor, rather than significant, effect on the cellular viability. In particular, the dependence of viability on M�CD concentration was found to be characterized by a ~25% increase per 1 of M�CD concentration.