Fig. 1.

Cartoon illustrating denaturation of discoidal HDL. Free energy diagram shows rate-limiting transition state that separates reconstituted HDL (rHDL) in their native (disks) and denatured states (protein-containing vesicles and dissociated lipid-poor protein). It involves transient disruption of protein and lipid packing interactions and solvent exposure of apolar moieties during protein dissociation and lipoprotein fusion. Kinetic free energy of lipoprotein stability, ΔG* = G(transition) − G(native), is indicated.