[The effect of cholesterol on the function of staphylotoxin channels]

Bilayer lipid membrane (BLM) formed from lecithin and lecithin-cholesterol mixtures by Mueller and Montal were used. It was found that the parameters of ST-channel functioning did not depend on the presence of the carbohydrate solvent. The 0.5 molar cholesterol in BLM markedly influenced the characteristic relaxation time depending on the electric field vector direction through the membrane, and increasing them only when the potential from the side of added channel-former was negative.