Small-Scale Cell Biological Analysis of Lipid Rafts of Blood Platelets and Cerebellar Neurons

Lipid rafts are dynamic assemblies of glycosphingolipids, sphingomyelin, cholesterol, and proteins that can be stabilized into platforms involved in the regulation of various vital cellular processes. Here, we describe small-scale isolation methods of lipid rafts. Detergent-resistant membrane raft fraction is isolated by a volume of 0.8 mL sucrose density gradient centrifugation from blood platelets. Raft fraction is also isolated from cerebellar neurons by co-immunoprecipitation using anti-glycosphingolipid monoclonal antibodies.