Abstract
The influence of the length of the cholesterol alkyl chain on essential membrane properties such as lipid ordering (condensation), lateral diffusion, membrane permeability, and membrane domain formation was studied using a series of synthetic cholesterol derivatives without a side chain or with an iso-branched chain bearing 5 to 14 carbons in length. We found that cholesterol's aliphatic side chain is crucial for all of the membrane properties investigated. First, we detected that the side chain is responsible for more than half of the phospholipid condensation in bilayers. Second, the length of the sterol side chain strongly determines membrane permeation, since a slightly longer or shorter side chain renders the bilayer significantly more permeable. Third, lateral lipid and sterol diffusion highly depends on the side chain length. Fourth, the length of the cholesterol side chain also determines the lateral organization of lipids in raft mixtures. While all tested sterols induce domain formation, the lipid distribution between the liquid disordered or raft phase is strongly dependent on side chain length. Fifth, the sterol side chain also influences the partitioning of a transmembrane peptide domain into liquid-ordered or liquid-disordered domains. Therefore, in addition to the flat tetracyclic ring system of cholesterol, the iso-branched side chain of cholesterol plays a key role in producing the relevant membrane properties of eukaryotic cells that result in an optimal interaction with phospholipids and presumably with membrane proteins. Sterols bearing an unbranched alkyl side chain of varying length also influence important properties of lipid membranes. However, the extent of this impact is lower compared with that measured for the respective branched iso-side chain sterols. Obviously, sterols having a branched iso-chains with two terminal methyl groups exhibit altered cholesterol-phospholipid-interactions compared to molecules with a straight unbranched chain.
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