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Cholesterol in membranes
nhowarth
#1 Posted : Sunday, July 22, 2012 6:39:28 PM
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Can someone please explain how exactly cholesterol modulates membrane fluidity? I understand that it reduces fluidity at warm temperatures and maintains fluidity at cool temperatures but why is this the case?

Thanks in advance.
jamaicacass
#2 Posted : Wednesday, July 25, 2012 10:50:41 AM
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Hi there

For the MCAT, you to know that cholesterol's importance with respect to the PM is fluidity. FYI, cholesterol makes up close to 50 percent of the PM, molecule for molecule. Cholesterol helps separate the phospholipids so that the fatty acid chains can't come together and crystallize, and therefore, cholesterol helps prevent extremes- whether too fluid, or too firm- in the consistency of the cell membrane.
baller081
#3 Posted : Wednesday, August 01, 2012 10:28:47 PM
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Two important characteristics of cholesterol were determined in 2002. (2002, JACS, 124:4253)
This experiment demonstrated that cholesterol does not randomly integrate into bilayer membranes.
1) Cholesterol favours phospholipids as neighbours over itself or other sterols.
2) Cholesterol favours longer phospholipids over shorter phospholipids as neighbours.
It partitions up the membrane - partly facilitating the existence of lipid rafts.
At high temperatures long chain phospholipid tails rapidly spin underneath the cholesterol, preferring to be beside it, increasing stability, opposed to being beside another phospholipid, which is less stable because it cant move around as much? Something like that I think... And like previously stated prevents packing at cold temperatures.
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