The affinity of sterols for different phospholipid classes and its impact on lateral segregation (Biophysical Journal)

Cholesterol is an essential molecule in the membranes of mammalian cells. It is known to be distributed heterogeneously within the cells, between the bilayer leaflets, as well as between lateral domains within the bilayer. However, we do not know exactly how cholesterol is distributed and what forces drive this sorting process, as it extremely difficult to study using currently available methods. In order to further elucidate this distribution, we measured how cholesterol partitions between different phospholipid (PL) environments using different methods based on cholesterol, TopFluor (TF)-cholesterol, and cholestatrienol (CTL).