title: Role of lipids in urinary stones: studies of calcium oxalate precipitation at phospholipid langmuir monolayers.
abstract: This article reviews the authors' experiments on calcium oxalate growth at lipid monolayers. Calcium oxalate is the principal mineral component of most urinary stones. Membrane constituents associate either actively or passively with calcific minerals during stone formation, and it has been proposed that lipid assemblies play a significant role, possibly providing sites for the initial nucleation event. Langmuir monolayers allow systematic studies of the heterogeneous precipitation of calcium oxalate at lipid assemblies. The influences of the chemical identity of the lipid headgroup, the organization of the monolayer, and the presence of heterogeneities and phase boundaries within the monolayer have been explored.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida 32611-7200, USA. talham@chem.ufl.edu
authors.forename: Daniel R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Talham
authors.forename: Renal
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Backov
authors.forename: Isa O
authors.initials: IO
authors.lastname: Benitez
authors.forename: Denise M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Sharbaugh
authors.forename: Scott
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Whipps
authors.forename: Saeed R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Khan
mesh_terms: D002129:Calcium Oxalate / Q000737:chemistry*; D011232:Chemical Precipitation; D008055:Lipids / Q000502:physiology*; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry*; D014545:Urinary Calculi / Q000503:physiopathology*
chemical_list: D008055:Lipids; D010743:Phospholipids; D002129:Calcium Oxalate