Department of Chemistry, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA, 18015, USA.
Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2017 Feb 1;56(6):1639-1642. doi: 10.1002/anie.201611367. Epub 2017 Jan 9.
The forces that drive lipid raft formation are poorly understood. To date, most of the attention has focused on attractive interactions between cholesterol and high-melting lipids. Remarkably little attention has been paid to repulsive forces. Here, we show that repulsive interactions between an exchangeable mimic of cholesterol and an exchangeable mimic of a low-melting phospholipid in liquid-disordered bilayers can be much stronger than the attractive forces between this same sterol and an exchangeable mimic of a high-melting phospholipid in liquid-ordered bilayers. We conclude that polyunsaturated phospholipids have been largely overlooked as major players in lipid raft formation. This knowledge should stimulate considerable interest in controlling the levels of polyunsaturated phospholipids for the proper functioning of cell membranes.
驱动脂质筏形成的力还不太清楚。迄今为止，大多数注意力都集中在胆固醇和高熔点脂质之间的吸引力上。但对排斥力的关注却少得多。在这里，我们表明，在无序双层中的胆固醇的可交换类似物和低熔点磷脂的可交换类似物之间的排斥力可以比在有序双层中同一固醇和高熔点磷脂的可交换类似物之间的吸引力强得多。我们得出的结论是，多不饱和磷脂在脂质筏形成中一直被大大忽视为主要参与者。这一认识应该会激发人们极大的兴趣，以控制多不饱和磷脂的水平，从而使细胞膜正常运作。
