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Related Concept Videos

Protein Diffusion in the Membrane01:24

Protein Diffusion in the Membrane

Proteins show rotational as well as lateral diffusion across the membrane. The lateral diffusion of proteins was confirmed through the cell fusion experiment where mouse and human cells were fused, resulting in hybrid cells. When the human and mouse cells fused, the specific membrane proteins on human and mouse cells were marked with the red and green-fluorescent markers, respectively. Initially, the red and green fluorescence was located on the respective hemisphere of the cell. As time...
Asymmetric Lipid Bilayer01:35

Asymmetric Lipid Bilayer

Biological membranes show uneven distribution of different types of lipids in the inner and outer layers, resulting in transverse asymmetric membranes. The treatment of the erythrocyte membrane with the enzyme phospholipase confirmed the asymmetric nature of the lipid bilayer. The enzyme hydrolyzes lipids into fatty acids and hydrophilic groups. The phospholipase acts only on the outer layer of the membrane, while the inner layer remains intact. The phospholipase treatment resulted in 80%...
Membrane Fluidity01:26

Membrane Fluidity

Membrane fluidity is explained by the fluid mosaic model of the cell membrane, which describes the plasma membrane structure as a mosaic of components—including phospholipids, cholesterol, proteins, and carbohydrates—that gives the membrane a fluid character.
Mosaic nature of the membrane
The mosaic characteristic of the membrane helps the plasma membrane remain fluid. The integral proteins and lipids exist as separate but loosely-attached molecules in the membrane. The membrane is a relatively...
Membrane Fluidity01:23

Membrane Fluidity

Cell membranes are composed of phospholipids, proteins, and carbohydrates loosely attached to one another through chemical interactions. Molecules are generally able to move about in the plane of the membrane, giving the membrane its flexible nature called fluidity. Two other features of the membrane contribute to membrane fluidity: the chemical structure of the phospholipids and the presence of cholesterol in the membrane.Fatty acids tails of phospholipids can be either saturated or...
Diffusion01:12

Diffusion

Diffusion is the passive movement of substances down their concentration gradients—requiring no expenditure of cellular energy. Substances, such as molecules or ions, diffuse from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration in the cytosol or across membranes. Eventually, the concentration will even out, with the substance moving randomly but causing no net change in concentration. Such a state is called dynamic equilibrium, which is essential for maintaining overall...
Diffusion01:21

Diffusion

Diffusion is a type of passive transport. In passive transport, a substance tends to move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration until the concentration is equal across the space. For example, take the diffusion of substances through the air. When someone opens a perfume bottle in a room filled with people, the perfume is at its highest concentration in the bottle and is at its lowest at the edges of the room. The perfume vapor will diffuse, or spread away, from the...

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Related Experiment Video

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Spot Variation Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy for Analysis of Molecular Diffusion at the Plasma Membrane of Living Cells
05:56

Spot Variation Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy for Analysis of Molecular Diffusion at the Plasma Membrane of Living Cells

Published on: November 12, 2020

Lipid lateral diffusion and membrane heterogeneity.

Göran Lindblom1, Greger Orädd

  • 1Department of Chemistry, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden. goran.lindblom@chem.umu.se

Biochimica Et Biophysica Acta
|September 23, 2008
PubMed
Summary

Pulsed field gradient NMR measures molecular diffusion in lipid bilayers, revealing insights into lipid and membrane biology. This technique shows that lateral diffusion is uniform within lipid phases, and cholesterol distributes evenly across phases.

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Last Updated: Jun 30, 2026

Spot Variation Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy for Analysis of Molecular Diffusion at the Plasma Membrane of Living Cells
05:56

Spot Variation Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy for Analysis of Molecular Diffusion at the Plasma Membrane of Living Cells

Published on: November 12, 2020

Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies
07:31

Realistic Membrane Modeling Using Complex Lipid Mixtures in Simulation Studies

Published on: September 1, 2023

Fluorescence Recovery after Merging a Droplet to Measure the Two-dimensional Diffusion of a Phospholipid Monolayer
07:54

Fluorescence Recovery after Merging a Droplet to Measure the Two-dimensional Diffusion of a Phospholipid Monolayer

Published on: October 15, 2015

Area of Science:

  • Membrane biophysics
  • Lipid bilayer dynamics
  • Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy

Background:

  • Understanding molecular transport and phase behavior in lipid bilayers is crucial for membrane biology.
  • Macroscopically aligned lipid bilayers provide a model system for studying complex membrane phenomena.
  • Pulsed field gradient (PFG)-NMR is a powerful technique for measuring molecular diffusion.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To describe the pulsed field gradient (PFG)-NMR method for measuring translational diffusion in aligned lipid bilayers.
  • To investigate the lateral diffusion and phase behavior of lipids and cholesterol within bilayers.
  • To explore the factors driving lateral phase separation in complex lipid mixtures.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized PFG-NMR to measure translational diffusion coefficients in macroscopically aligned lipid bilayers.
  • Employed 2H NMR quadrupole splittings to determine order parameters of perdeuterated acyl chains.
  • Prepared oriented lipid bilayers suitable for PFG-NMR analysis.

Main Results:

  • Demonstrated that lateral diffusion is identical for all molecular components within the same lipid domain (liquid disordered or liquid ordered phase).
  • Found that cholesterol (CHOL) partitions nearly equally between the liquid disordered (l(d)) and liquid ordered (l(o)) phases.
  • Observed that lateral phase separation in bilayers with high- and low-melting point lipids and CHOL is entropy-driven, favoring hydrocarbon chain disorder.

Conclusions:

  • PFG-NMR is a valuable tool for studying lipid and membrane biology, offering insights into molecular transport and phase dynamics.
  • Cholesterol exhibits no strong preference for either the l(d) or l(o) phase in these lipid bilayers.
  • Entropy drives phase separation to accommodate the differing chain ordering requirements of saturated and unsaturated lipids in the presence of cholesterol.