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Updated: Aug 16, 2026

Biomembrane Fabrication by the Solvent-assisted Lipid Bilayer (SALB) Method
Published on: December 1, 2015
Cholesterol induced suppression of large swelling of water layer in phosphocholine floating bilayers
Barry Stidder1, Giovanna Fragneto, Robert Cubitt
1Institut Laue-Langevin, 6 rue Jules Horowitz, bp 156, 38042 Grenoble, France.
Abstract:
The effect of the addition of 10 mol % cholesterol to 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC) floating bilayers has been investigated by means of neutron reflectivity measurements. The large swelling of the water layer between the two bilayers found in pure phosphocholine systems around the lipid main phase transition is greatly reduced in the 9:1 DPPC:cholesterol mixture. The analysis of the structure of the bilayer reveals that in the gel phase cholesterol induces the presence of a high rms roughness that disappears in the fluid phase.
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