The Chemical Potential of Plasma Membrane Cholesterol: Implications for Cell Biology.

ABSTRACT: Cholesterol is abundant in plasma membranes and exhibits a variety of interactions throughout the membrane. Chemical potential accounts for thermodynamic consequences of molecular interactions, and quantifies the effective concentration (i.e., activity) of any substance participating in a process. We have developed, to our knowledge, the first method to measure cholesterol chemical potential in plasma membranes. This was accomplished by complexing methyl-β-cyclodextrin with cholesterol in an aqueous solution and equilibrating it with an organic solvent containing dissolved cholesterol. The chemical potential of cholesterol was thereby equalized in the two phases. Because cholesterol is dilute in the organic phase, here activity and concentration were equivalent. This equivalence allowed th

SUBMITTER: Ayuyan AG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5984996 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature