Characterization of the mouse pancreatic/mammary gland cholesterol esterase-encoding cDNA and gene.

Pancreatic cholesterol esterase (CEase) is involved in cholesterol ester hydrolysis and transport of cholesterol into intestinal cells. Isolation and sequencing of the mouse CEase cDNA indicates that the murine enzyme is very similar to the human enzyme, with the exception of the highly repeated C-terminal Pro-rich repeats. Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction analysis reveals that the message is synthesized in the pancreas of mice, but not in the liver.