{"title":"Role of Cholesterol and its Biosynthetic Precursors on Membrane Organization and Dynamics: A Fluorescence Approach.","authors":"Sandeep Shrivastava, Yamuna Devi Paila, Amitabha Chattopadhyay","doi":"10.1007/s00232-023-00278-w","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cholesterol is the most representative sterol present in membranes of higher eukaryotes, and is the end product of a long and multistep biosynthetic pathway. Lathosterol and zymosterol are biosynthetic precursors of cholesterol in Kandutsch-Russell and Bloch pathways, respectively. Lathosterol differs with cholesterol merely in the position of the double bond in the sterol ring, whereas zymosterol differs with cholesterol in position and number of double bonds. In this work, we have monitored the effect of cholesterol and its biosynthetic precursors (lathosterol and zymosterol) on membrane organization and dynamics in fluid and gel phase membranes. Toward this goal, we have utilized two fluorescent membrane probes, DPH and its cationic derivative TMA-DPH. Our results using these probes show that cholesterol and its biosynthetic precursors (lathosterol and zymosterol) exhibit similar trend in maintaining membrane organization and dynamics (as reported by fluorescence anisotropy and apparent rotational correlation time), in fluid phase POPC membranes. Notably, although lathosterol and zymosterol show similar trend in maintaining membrane organization and dynamics, the corresponding change for cholesterol is different in gel phase DPPC membranes. These results demonstrate that the position and number of double bonds in sterols is an important determinant in maintaining membrane physical properties. Our results assume significance since accumulation of precursors of cholesterol have been reported to be associated with severe pathological conditions.</p>","PeriodicalId":50129,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Membrane Biology","volume":"256 2","pages":"189-197"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Membrane Biology","FirstCategoryId":"99","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s00232-023-00278-w","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"生物学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"BIOCHEMISTRY & MOLECULAR BIOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Cholesterol is the most representative sterol present in membranes of higher eukaryotes, and is the end product of a long and multistep biosynthetic pathway. Lathosterol and zymosterol are biosynthetic precursors of cholesterol in Kandutsch-Russell and Bloch pathways, respectively. Lathosterol differs with cholesterol merely in the position of the double bond in the sterol ring, whereas zymosterol differs with cholesterol in position and number of double bonds. In this work, we have monitored the effect of cholesterol and its biosynthetic precursors (lathosterol and zymosterol) on membrane organization and dynamics in fluid and gel phase membranes. Toward this goal, we have utilized two fluorescent membrane probes, DPH and its cationic derivative TMA-DPH. Our results using these probes show that cholesterol and its biosynthetic precursors (lathosterol and zymosterol) exhibit similar trend in maintaining membrane organization and dynamics (as reported by fluorescence anisotropy and apparent rotational correlation time), in fluid phase POPC membranes. Notably, although lathosterol and zymosterol show similar trend in maintaining membrane organization and dynamics, the corresponding change for cholesterol is different in gel phase DPPC membranes. These results demonstrate that the position and number of double bonds in sterols is an important determinant in maintaining membrane physical properties. Our results assume significance since accumulation of precursors of cholesterol have been reported to be associated with severe pathological conditions.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Membrane Biology is dedicated to publishing high-quality science related to membrane biology, biochemistry and biophysics. In particular, we welcome work that uses modern experimental or computational methods including but not limited to those with microscopy, diffraction, NMR, computer simulations, or biochemistry aimed at membrane associated or membrane embedded proteins or model membrane systems. These methods might be applied to study topics like membrane protein structure and function, membrane mediated or controlled signaling mechanisms, cell-cell communication via gap junctions, the behavior of proteins and lipids based on monolayer or bilayer systems, or genetic and regulatory mechanisms controlling membrane function.
Research articles, short communications and reviews are all welcome. We also encourage authors to consider publishing ''negative'' results where experiments or simulations were well performed, but resulted in unusual or unexpected outcomes without obvious explanations.
While we welcome connections to clinical studies, submissions that are primarily clinical in nature or that fail to make connections to the basic science issues of membrane structure, chemistry and function, are not appropriate for the journal. In a similar way, studies that are primarily descriptive and narratives of assays in a clinical or population study are best published in other journals. If you are not certain, it is entirely appropriate to write to us to inquire if your study is a good fit for the journal.