Biochemical Analysis of Lipid Rafts to Study Pathogenic Mechanisms of Neural Diseases

The discovery of dynamic platforms in cell membranes, called lipid rafts or detergent resistant membrane domains, opened a new chapter on studies of membrane cell biology. Indeed, the analysis of lipid rafts enabled innovative ways to understand cellular and molecular mechanisms regulating normal and pathological processes. Lipid rafts have been studied in most cell types, where they work by providing transient and fluid architectural scaffolding platforms regulating a spectrum of important signaling pathways, including receptor activities, protein-protein interactions, posttranslational modifications of proteins and lipids and the function of ion channels. In this chapter, we will explain how to isolate these membrane domains from neural tissue samples and perform further analysis of proteins and lipids.