title: Desmosterol may replace cholesterol in lipid membranes.
abstract: Recently, knockout mice entirely lacking cholesterol have been described as showing only a mild phenotype. For these animals, synthesis of cholesterol was interrupted at the level of its immediate precursor, desmosterol. Since cholesterol is a major and essential constituent of mammalian cellular membranes, we asked whether cholesterol with its specific impact on membrane properties might be replaced by desmosterol. By employing various approaches of NMR, fluorescence, and EPR spectroscopy, we found that the properties of phospholipid membranes like lipid packing in the presence of cholesterol or desmosterol are very similar. However, for lanosterol, a more distant precursor of cholesterol synthesis, we found significant differences in comparison with cholesterol and desmosterol. Our results show that, from the point of view of membrane biophysics, cholesterol and desmosterol behave identically and, therefore, replacement of cholesterol by desmosterol may not impact organism homeostasis.
authors.affiliation: Junior Research Group Solid-State NMR Studies of Membrane-Associated Proteins, Biotechnological-Biomedical Center, University of Leipzig, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huster
authors.forename: Holger A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Scheidt
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Arnold
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Herrmann
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D002784:Cholesterol / Q000737:chemistry*; D003897:Desmosterol / Q000737:chemistry*; D007810:Lanosterol / Q000737:chemistry*; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry*; D008081:Liposomes / Q000737:chemistry*; D008560:Membrane Fluidity; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D008081:Liposomes; D008567:Membranes, Artificial; D010743:Phospholipids; D007810:Lanosterol; D003897:Desmosterol; D002784:Cholesterol