title: Cholesterol's location in lipid bilayers.
abstract: It is well known that cholesterol modifies the physical properties of lipid bilayers. For example, the much studied liquid-ordered Lo phase contains rapidly diffusing lipids with their acyl chains in the all trans configuration, similar to gel phase bilayers. Moreover, the Lo phase is commonly associated with cholesterol-enriched lipid rafts, which are thought to serve as platforms for signaling proteins in the plasma membrane. Cholesterol's location in lipid bilayers has been studied extensively, and it has been shown - at least in some bilayers - to align differently from its canonical upright orientation, where its hydroxyl group is in the vicinity of the lipid-water interface. In this article we review recent works describing cholesterol's location in different model membrane systems with emphasis on results obtained from scattering, spectroscopic and molecular dynamics studies.
authors.affiliation: University of Graz, Institute of Molecular Biosciences, Biophysics Division, NAWI Graz, Humboldtstr. 50/III, 8010 Graz, Austria; BioTechMed-Graz, Austria. Electronic address: drew.marquardt@uni-graz.at.
authors.forename: Drew
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Marquardt
authors.affiliation: Frank Laboratory of Neutron Physics, Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, 141980 Dubna, Moscow Region, Russia; Department of Physical Chemistry of Drugs, Faculty of Pharmacy, Comenius University, 832 32 Bratislava, Slovakia.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kučerka
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States.
authors.forename: Stephen R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Wassall
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1, Canada.
authors.forename: Thad A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Harroun
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario L2S 3A1, Canada; Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States; Joint Institute for Neutron Sciences, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, United States; Department of Physics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, United States. Electronic address: katsarasj@ornl.gov.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Katsaras
mesh_terms: D002784:Cholesterol / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D008051:Lipid Bilayers / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D010743:Phospholipids / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D008051:Lipid Bilayers; D010743:Phospholipids; D002784:Cholesterol
keywords: Cholesterol; Lipid domains; Membrane dynamics; Membrane structure; Sterol