Jacobson Ken, Mouritsen Ole G, Anderson Richard G W
Department of Cell and Developmental Biology & Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 121 Taylor Hall CB#7090, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA.
Nat Cell Biol. 2007 Jan;9(1):7-14. doi: 10.1038/ncb0107-7.
Membrane lateral heterogeneity is accepted as a requirement for the function of biological membranes and the notion of lipid rafts gives specificity to this broad concept. However, the lipid raft field is now at a technical impasse because the physical tools to study biological membranes as a liquid that is ordered in space and time are still being developed. This has lead to a disconnection between the concept of lipid rafts as derived from biochemical and biophysical assays and their existence in the cell. Here, we compare the concept of lipid rafts as it has emerged from the study of synthetic membranes with the reality of lateral heterogeneity in biological membranes. Further application of existing tools and the development of new tools are needed to understand the dynamic heterogeneity of biological membranes.
膜侧向异质性被认为是生物膜功能的必要条件，而脂筏的概念使这一宽泛的概念更具特异性。然而，脂筏领域目前正处于技术瓶颈，因为用于将生物膜作为在空间和时间上有序的液体进行研究的物理工具仍在开发中。这导致了源自生化和生物物理分析的脂筏概念与其在细胞中的实际存在之间的脱节。在此，我们将合成膜研究中出现的脂筏概念与生物膜中侧向异质性的实际情况进行比较。需要进一步应用现有工具并开发新工具来理解生物膜的动态异质性。
