The role of liquid crystalline behaviour of adrenocortical lipids in the control of steroidogenesis.

The physical state of rat adrenocortical lipids was studied by applying temperature-dependent techniques, including polarization microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry. Freeze-fracture detection was used for electron microscopic examinations. Temperature-dependent multiple phase transitions of adrenocortical lipids and their lamellar submicroscopic structure suggest a liquid crystalline state. This provides a possible explanation for the transition of storage lipids into liquid state, a precondition for their mobilization and processing by hydrolyzing enzyme system.