HMGCR and acute myeloid leukemia: AML cells prevent against drug cytotoxicity by rapidly increasing the level of protective cholesterol, which is achieved by elevating the HMGCR and LDL-R mRNA levels.8 Our data further demonstrated that OE of HMGCS1, another gene upstream in the cholesterol synthesis pathway in leukemia cells could endow them with resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs.