Abstract
Cholesterol crystallization from mixtures of unesterified cholesterol with phospholipids and cholesterol esters is believed to be a key event in atherosclerosis progression. Not much is understood, however, about the influence of the lipid environment on cholesterol crystallization. Here we study cholesterol monohydrate crystal formation from mixed bilayers with palmitoyl-oleoyl-phosphatidylcholine (POPC), dipalmitoyl-phosphatidylcholine (DPPC) and sphingomyelin. We show that disordered phospholipids and sphingomyelin stabilize the formation of crystal plates of the triclinic cholesterol monohydrate polymorph, whereas saturated glycerolipids stabilize helical and tubular crystals of the metastable monoclinic polymorph. We followed the subsequent transformation of these helical crystals into the stable triclinic plates. Discovering the relations between membrane lipid composition and cholesterol crystal polymorphism may provide important clues to the understanding of cholesterol crystal formation in atherosclerosis.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 338-344 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | ChemPlusChem |
| Volume | 84 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2019 |
Funding
We thank Prof. Benjamin Geiger for his support in the cell culture growth and maintenance. Super‐resolution microscopy and EM studies were conducted at the Irving and Cherna Moskowitz Center for Nano and Bio‐Nano Imaging at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Cryo‐SXT experiments were performed at the MISTRAL beamline at ALBA Synchrotron with the collaboration of ALBA staff and with the support of a CALIPSOplus Grant 730872. This research was supported by the Binational Science Foundation (grant 2013045 to L.A). L.A. is the incumbent of the Dorothy and Patrick Gorman Professorial Chair of Biological Ultrastructure at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- General Chemistry