Why does cholesterol need to attach to proteins to travel through the blood?
It is not LDL that does the Job. The target cells "know" which lipoproteins (LDL,HDL,VLDL...) they should take up. They express the specific Membrane receptor that binds the Protein part of e.g. LDL and therefore take up specifically LDL rather than e.g. HDL from the blood. Example: cells that express receptors for apolipoprotein B-100 (one of the Protein parts of LDL) specifically "filter" LDL from the blood. The "filtering" occurs via endocytosis. Hope that helps.