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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2017 Nov 11.
Published in final edited form as: ACS Infect Dis. 2016 Aug 25;2(11):852–862. doi: 10.1021/acsinfecdis.6b00086

Figure 5. Formation and fluidity of SLBs containing saturated lipids is promoted by desmosterol.

Figure 5

(A and B) Epifluorescence image of SLB containing 5% and 30% saturated lipids with desmosterol (A) or cholesterol (B). Scratches in images are used to ensure focus is in the correct plane. Liposomes containing cholesterol and 30% saturated lipids do not rupture and appear as punctate fluorescent dots on the glass slide. (C) Diffusion coefficients extracted from FRAP data of SLBs containing increasing lipid tail saturation and desmosterol (grey) or cholesterol (black) show that increasing saturation reduces diffusivity and that desmosterol counteracts this effect by maintaining bilayer fluidity even at high levels of saturation whereas cholesterol does not. (D) Diffusion coefficients derived from FRAP data of SLBs containing increasing concentration of C18 ceramide similarly show that increasing C18 ceramide abundance reduces bilayer diffusivity. Desmosterol-containing SLBs retain bilayer diffusivity whereas cholesterol- containing SLB do not. Representative data are shown or n ≥3 independent experiments. Error bars represent the standard deviation of the man calculated for 3 replicates.