Cholesterol Depletion by MβCD Enhances Cell Membrane Tension and Its Variations-Reducing Integrity.

ABSTRACT: Cholesterol depletion by methyl-β-cyclodextrin (MβCD) remodels the plasma membrane's mechanics in cells and its interactions with the underlying cytoskeleton, whereas in red blood cells, it is also known to cause lysis. Currently it's unclear if MβCD alters membrane tension or only enhances membrane-cytoskeleton interactions-and how this relates to cell lysis. We map membrane height fluctuations in single cells and observe that MβCD reduces temporal fluctuations robustly but flattens spatial membrane undulations only slightly. Utilizing models explicitly incorporating membrane confinement besides other viscoelastic factors, we estimate membrane mechanical parameters from the fluctuations' frequency spectrum. This helps us conclude that MβCD enhances membrane tension and does so even on ATP

SUBMITTER: Biswas A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6486507 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature