Sterol-polyene antibiotic complexation: probe of membrane structure.

Polyene antibiotics are useful tools for studying the role of sterols in biological membranes. The interaction of polyene antibiotics with membrane-bound sterols in artificial membrane systems, prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells, and lipid-containing viruses is reviewed. The pentaene macrolide, filipin, is shown to serve as a probe of phosphatidylcholine-sterol interaction and of the localization of cholesterol in the membrane of mycoplasmas.