Liquid ordered phase

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject.
Please help improve the article with a good introductory style.

The liquid ordered phase is a liquid crystalline phase of biological importance. It occurs in many lipid mixtures combining cholesterol with a phospholipid and/or sphingolipids e.g sphingomyelin. This phase has been related to lipid rafts that may exist in plasma membranes.

[edit] Definition

The liquid ordered phase can be defined as:

  • fluid and lamellar phase
  • acyl hydrocarbon chains are in the all-trans state
  • rapid lateral diffusion
  • 2H-NMR quadrupolar splitting is ca. 50kHz
  • WAXS scattering pattern centered by broad diffraction peak at 4.2Å

[edit] History

This was first called the liquid ordered phase by Ipsen et al. (1987). However, it has also been called the LGI subgel phase by Huang et al. (1993) and the β phase by Vist and Davis (1990).

[edit] References

  • Ipsen, J. H., G. Karlstrom, O. G. Mouritsen, H. Wennerstrom, and M. J. Zuckermann. 1987. Phase equilibria in the phosphatidylcholine-cholesterol system. Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 905:162–172.
  • Huang TH, Lee CWB, Dasgupta SK, Blume A, Griffin RG. 1993. "A C-13 and H-2 Nuclear-Magnetic-Resonance Study of Phosphatidylcholine Cholesterol Interactions - Characterization of Liquid-Gel Phases." Biochemistry 32(48):13277-13287
  • Vist MR, Davis JH. 1990. "Phase-Equilibria of Cholesterol Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine Mixtures - H-2 Nuclear Magnetic-Resonance and Differential Scanning Calorimetry." Biochemistry 29(2):451-464.
 This biochemistry article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.