Lecithin–cholesterol acyltransferase

LCAT
Identifiers
Aliases	LCAT, entrez:3931, lecithin-cholesterol acyltransferase
External IDs	OMIM: 606967; MGI: 96755; GeneCards: LCAT
Available structures
PDB	Ortholog search: PDBe RCSB
List of PDB id codes
	4X96, 4XWG, 4XX1, 5BV7
Enzyme activity
Gene location (Human)
Chr.	Chromosome 16 (human)
End	67,944,131 bp
Gene location (Mouse)
Chr.	Chromosome 8 (mouse)
End	106,670,014 bp
RNA expression pattern
	Top expressed in
	right lobe of liver; ; right hemisphere of cerebellum; ; tibial nerve; ; left lobe of thyroid gland; ; apex of heart; ; right lobe of thyroid gland; ; ascending aorta; ; right coronary artery; ; canal of the cervix; ; body of uterus;
	Top expressed in
	left lobe of liver; ; lumbar subsegment of spinal cord; ; dentate gyrus of hippocampal formation granule cell; ; cerebellar cortex; ; yolk sac; ; primary visual cortex; ; CA3 field; ; optic nerve; ; hippocampus proper; ; superior frontal gyrus;
	More reference expression data
	n/a
Gene ontology
Molecular function	transferase activity; O-acyltransferase activity; apolipoprotein A-I binding; protein binding; acyltransferase activity; phosphatidylcholine-sterol O-acyltransferase activity;
Cellular component	extracellular region; high-density lipoprotein particle; extracellular exosome; extracellular space;
Biological process	steroid metabolic process; regulation of high-density lipoprotein particle assembly; lipid metabolism; cholesterol transport; cholesterol metabolic process; cholesterol esterification; very-low-density lipoprotein particle remodeling; phospholipid metabolic process; lipoprotein biosynthetic process; cholesterol homeostasis; phosphatidylcholine biosynthetic process; phosphatidylcholine metabolic process; reverse cholesterol transport; high-density lipoprotein particle remodeling;
	Sources:Amigo / QuickGO
Orthologs
Databases	NCBI: entry; OMA: entry
	3931
	16816
	ENSG00000213398
	ENSMUSG00000035237
	P04180
	P16301
	NM_000229
	NM_008490
	NP_000220
	NP_032516
	Wikidata
View/Edit Human	View/Edit Mouse

Lecithin–cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT, also called phosphatidylcholine–sterol O-acyltransferase) is an enzyme found in many animals, including humans. It converts free cholesterol into cholesteryl ester, a more hydrophobic form of cholesterol. This process sequesters cholesterol ester into the core of a lipoprotein particle, eventually making the newly synthesized HDL spherical and forcing the reaction to become unidirectional since the particles are removed from the surface. The enzyme is bound to high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) (alpha-LCAT) and LDLs (beta-LCAT) in the blood plasma.^[5] LCAT deficiency can cause impaired vision due to cholesterol corneal opacities, anemia, and kidney damage.^[6] It belongs to the family of phospholipid:diacylglycerol acyltransferases.