Skip to main content
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2019 Aug 1.
Published in final edited form as: Curr Opin Cell Biol. 2018 May 19;53:44–51. doi: 10.1016/j.ceb.2018.04.013

Figure 1. Physicochemical membrane homeostasis.

Figure 1

(A) Classical experiments by Michael Sinensky [5] established that when the membrane of cells (left) becomes less fluid upon a drop of temperature (middle), cells adjust their lipid composition to reestablish membrane fluidity (right). (B) Physicochemical membrane properties can direct differentiation processes [22]. Mesenchymal stem cells can differentiate into fat cells or osteoblasts (left). The PMs of these cells show lineage-specific lipidomic remodeling affecting membrane phase behavior (middle), with osteoblast PMs characterized by a higher polyunsaturated lipid content and higher tendency to phase segregate. Mimicking the compositional and biophysical remodeling of the PM by supplementation with polyunsaturated fatty acid (DHA) directs osteoblast differentiation (right).