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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Jan 21.
Published in final edited form as: J Phys Chem B. 2010 Jan 21;114(2):840. doi: 10.1021/jp909061h

Figure 7.

Figure 7

The snapshots of an unusual flip-flop of cholesterol across the DOPC bilayer in the cluster system. Inserts: the snapshots of the membrane surface viewed from the top aqueous phase. 0 ns: An artificially arranged cholesterol cluster at the start of the simulation. 4 ns: The cluster adopted the frustum shape and also moved deeper into the bilayer. One cholesterol molecule was half way into the bottom leaflet. 9 ns: The cholesterol was completely inside the bottom leaflet, but was also up side down. 12 to 26 ns: The cholesterol completed the flip entirely within the bottom leaflet. At the same time, the cluster dispersed into smaller pieces.