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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2014 Aug 4.
Published in final edited form as: J Am Chem Soc. 2011 Dec 16;134(2):1164–1171. doi: 10.1021/ja2092322

Figure 1. Condensing effect of cholesterol.

Figure 1

a) The total membrane surface area, A divided by the number of DPPC molecules, NDPPC versus the number of cholesterol molecules, Nchol divided by the number of DPPC molecules. Blue dots: from molecular dynamics calculations 44; Red line: calculated from Eq.2 (see text) by using parameter values τ=5Å and Ac = 34 Å2. The membrane surface area, A is given in Å2.

b) Red and blue curve is the radius, r and cross sectional area, AM(= r2π), respectively of a rigid cluster as a function of the number of hydrocarbon chains condensed to a cholesterol, M(=2N). These curves were calculated from Eq.2 (see text) by using parameter values τ = 5Å and Ac = 34 Å2. r and AM is given in Å and Å2, respectively.