Toy model that explains the regulation of cholesterol on lipid rafts  

作　　者：Dongyu Lyu Tanlin Wei Lei Zhang Yong Zhang 

机构地区：[1]School of Physics,Sun Yat-sen University,Guangzhou 510275,China

出　　处：《Communications in Theoretical Physics》2022年第8期134-139,共6页理论物理通讯（英文版）

基　　金：fiancial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(NSFC No.61475196)。

摘　　要：Cholesterol,as a common lipid on mammalian cell membranes,plays an important role in the formation of lipid rafts.Recent experiments suggest that the strength of cholesterol's regulation on lipid rafts can be affected by the length of the unsaturated phospholipid acyl chain on the membrane.In order to understand this observation,a simplified toy model containing three different molecules is proposed in this paper,where the tail length of phospholipids is considered.This model shows the regulation of membrane cholesterol on the phase separation of the lipid mixture and the formation of nano-domains,and also suggests that the configuration entropy of phospholipid tails is an essential factor.

关 键 词：CHOLESTEROL tail length of phospholipids lipid lattice model phase separation lipid rafts 

分 类 号：Q545[生物学—生物化学]