Push–Pull Mechanism for Lipid Raft Formation
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Abstract
A quantitative assessment has been
made of the interaction between
exchangeable mimics of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-<i>sn</i>-glycero-3-phosphocholine
(POPC) and cholesterol in the liquid-ordered (<i>l</i><sub>0</sub>) and the liquid-disordered (<i>l</i><sub>d</sub>) states using the nearest-neighbor recognition (NNR) method. This
assessment has established that these lipids mix ideally in the <i>l</i><sub>0</sub> phase (i.e., they show no net attraction or
repulsion toward each other) but exhibit repulsive interactions in
the <i>l</i><sub>d</sub> phase. The implications of these
findings for the interactions between unsaturated phospholipids and
cholesterol in eukaryotic cell membranes are briefly discussed