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Phase behavior of lipid mixtures

Biological membranes are two-dimensional mixtures of an enormous number of different components. Modeling cell membranes as simple bilayer mixtures reveals rich phase behavior, but how can we use the observed phase behavior to understand the real membranes?

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Figure 1: Structures of probes and lipid components used for phase studies.
Figure 2: Bilayer mixtures of DSPC/DOPC/cholesterol at 23 °C show rich phase behavior.
Figure 3: Confocal fluorescence microscopy of giant unilamellar vesicles, labeled with fluorescent dyes (Fig. 1a), clearly reveals phase coexistence.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by US National Science Foundation grant MCB-0315330 to G.W.F. The author thanks J. Zhao and F. Heberle for helpful discussions.

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Feigenson, G. Phase behavior of lipid mixtures. Nat Chem Biol 2, 560–563 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nchembio1106-560

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