Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 21, 2026

Biomembrane Fabrication by the Solvent-assisted Lipid Bilayer (SALB) Method
Published on: December 1, 2015
Cholesterol reverts Triton X-100 preferential solubilization of sphingomyelin over phosphatidylcholine: a 31P-NMR
Hasna Ahyayauch1, M Isabel Collado, Félix M Goñi
1Unidad de Biofísica (Centro Mixto CSIC-UPV/EHU), Departamento de Bioquímica, Universidad del País Vasco, Bilbao, Spain.
Abstract:
The distribution of phosphatidylcholine (PC) and sphingomyelin (SM) between the solubilized (micellar) and non-solubilized (lamellar) fractions arising from bilayers composed of PC and SM, with or without cholesterol (Chol) has been measured under conditions of partial, incomplete solubilization by Triton X-100. Quantitation is achieved by (31)P-NMR determination of the composition of mixed micelles in the range of bilayer-micelle coexistence. We find that the solubilized fraction of bilayers consisting of binary mixtures of PC and SM is rich in SM, as expected from previous data on solubilization of pure PC and pure SM liposomes. In contrast, after partial solubilization of ternary mixtures of PC, SM and Chol, the solubilized fraction becomes SM-poor, as observed in the partial solubilization of biomembranes.
Related Concept Videos
Synthesis of Phosphatidylcholine in the ER Membrane
The major components of all eukaryotic cell...
Asymmetric Lipid Bilayer

