Cholesterol exchange between phospholipid vesicles
Mady, Mohsen M. . 2006
The mechanism of cholesterol exchange has been investigated by
following the transfer of radiolabeled cholesterol from negatively charged, unilamellar donor
vesicles to neutral acceptor vesicles. Donor and acceptor vesicles were incubated together and
were stable to fusion over the course of the experiment. At intervals, donor and acceptor
vesicles were separated by passage through a column of DEAE-Sepharose. Ion exchange
chromatography was used for rapid separation of donor and acceptor (present in 10-fold molar
excess) vesicles. The kinetics of [14C] cholesterol transfer between unilamellar vesicles was
described and analyzed in the presence of sucrose buffer; 10% FCS (fetal calf serum) and 50%
FCS. The process is first order kinetics. This means that acceleration of the off-rate must be due
to donor-acceptor interactions at short distances. It was found that the presence of serum in the
medium greatly diminished rather than increased the total transfer of radiolabelled cholesterol
from donor vesicles to the acceptor vesicles.
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