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Mechanical Properties Of The High Cholesterol-Containing Membrane: An Afm Study, Nawal K. Khadka, Raju Timsina, Erica L. Rowe, Matthew O'Dell, Laxman Mainali
Mechanical Properties Of The High Cholesterol-Containing Membrane: An Afm Study, Nawal K. Khadka, Raju Timsina, Erica L. Rowe, Matthew O'Dell, Laxman Mainali
Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations
Cholesterol (Chol) content in most cellular membranes does not exceed 50 mol%, only in the eye lens’s fiber cell plasma membrane, its content surpasses 50 mol%. At this high concentration, Chol induces the formation of pure cholesterol bilayer domains (CBDs), which coexist with the surrounding phospholipid-cholesterol domain (PCD). Here, we applied atomic force microscopy to study the mechanical properties of Chol/phosphatidylcholine membranes where the Chol content was increased from 0 to 75 mol%, relevant to eye lens membranes. The surface roughness of the membrane decreases with an increase of Chol content until it reaches 60 mol%, and roughness increases with …