Comparison of the liquid-ordered bilayer phases containing cholesterol or 7-dehydrocholesterol in modeling Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome[S]

• Main Authors: Galya Staneva, Claude Chachaty, Claude Wolf, Peter J. Quinn
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2010-07-01
• Series: Journal of Lipid Research
• Subjects: membrane rafts; SLO; sphingomyelin
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022227520371030

The phase behavior of egg sphingomyelin (ESM) mixtures with cholesterol or 7-dehydrocholesterol (7-DHC) has been investigated by independent methods: fluorescence microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and electron spin resonance spectroscopy. In giant vesicles, cholesterol-enriched domains appeared as large and clearly delineated domains assigned to a liquid-ordered (Lo) phase. The domains containing 7-DHC were smaller and had more diffuse boundaries. Separation of a gel phase assigned by X-ray examination to pure sphingomyelin domains coexisting with sterol-enriched domains was observed at temperatures less than 38°C in binary mixtures containing 10-mol% sterol. At higher sterol concentrations, the coexistence of liquid-ordered and liquid-disordered phases was evidenced in the temperature range 20°–50°C. Calculated electron density profiles indicated the location of 7-DHC was more loosely defined than cholesterol, which is localized precisely at a particular depth along the bilayer normal. ESR spectra of spin-labeled fatty acid partitioned in the liquid-ordered component showed a similar, high degree of order for both sterols in the center of the bilayer, but it was higher in the coexisting disordered phase for 7-DHC. The differences detected in the models of the lipid membrane matrix are said to initiate the deleterious consequences of the Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome.