Comparative Study of the Condensing Effects of Ergosterol and Cholesterol.

ABSTRACT: Cholesterol, due to its condensing effect, is considered an important regulator of membrane thickness. Other sterols, due to their structural similarities to cholesterol, are often assumed to have a universal effect on membrane properties similar to the condensing effect of cholesterol, albeit possibly to different degrees. We used x-ray diffraction to investigate this assumption. By the combination of lamellar diffraction and grazing-angle scattering, we measured the membrane thickness and the tilt-angle distribution of the lipid's hydrocarbon chains. This method is sensitive to phase separation, which is important for examining the miscibility of sterols and phospholipids. Mixtures of ergosterol or cholesterol with dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine, palmitoyloleoylphosphatidylcholine, and d

SUBMITTER: Hung WC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4939751 | biostudies-literature | 2016 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature