STARD3‐mediated cholesterol accumulation in endosomes occurs at the expense of plasma membrane STARD3‐mediated cholesterol accumulation in endosomes occurs at the expense of plasma membrane Indirect analysis of plasma membrane cholesterol content. Cells were treated with amphotericin B (20 μg/ml; 4 h at 37°C), and cell viability was measured using a luminescent cell viability assay. Relative cell viability is represented on the graph. Mean ± SD; n: number of independent experiments; HeLa, HeLa/Ctrl, HeLa/STARD3: n = 5; HeLa/STARD3 ΔSTART; HeLa/STARD3 MR/ND; HeLa/STARD3 FA/YA: n = 4. **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparison test.Plasma membrane cholesterol labeling using the GFP‐D4 probe. Live cells were incubated with GFP‐D4 probe (green) prior to fixation and nuclei staining (blue). Both signals are merged (a–f). Scale bar: 10 μm. (g) Quantification of mCherry‐D4 membrane labeling by flow cytometry. Fluorescence mean intensities are compared with that of control cells set to one. Mean ± SD; n = 7 independent experiments; paired two‐tailed t‐test; ***P = 0.0006.Western blot analysis (a) of STARD3 in HeLa cells, HeLa cells expressing a control shRNA (shCtrl) and in HeLa cells expressing two shRNAs targeting STARD3 (shSTARD3‐α and shSTARD3‐β). Actin was used as a loading control. Plasma membrane cholesterol was labeled using the GFP‐D4 probe (b) under normal cell culture conditions and under LPDS culture conditions (24‐h treatment); flow cytometry quantification of the GFP‐D4 staining is expressed as mean intensity with that of control cell in normal medium set to one. Mean ± SD; n = 9 independent experiments; **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ANOVA with Tukey's multiple comparison test. Léa P Wilhelm et al. EMBO J. 2017;36:1412-1433 © as stated in the article, figure or figure legend