The dispersion of cholesterol with phospholipids and glycolipids

Of the polar lipids studied (phospholipids and glycolipids), only phosphatidylcholine and sphingomyelin can disperse in water with up to 2 mol cholesterol/mol polar lipid. However, mixtures of phosphatidylethanolamine with small amounts of phosphatidylcholine and mixed lipids from mitochondria and myelin will also form sterol-rich dispersions. Steroids in which the 3beta-OH group is replaced by an oxo function do not form such steroid-rich dispersions. Electron microscopy and optical rotatory dispersion (ORD) show that sterols disperse with cerebrosides and gangliosides to form cylindrical structures with the regions around C atoms 3 and 7 of the sterol in less polar environments than those they occupy in phospholipid liposomes. It is proposed that choline-containing phospholipids facilitate entry of sterol molecules into the outer leaflet of cell surface membranes but that the phospholipid composition itself will not give rise to an asymmetric distribution of sterol in membranes with a high cholesterol content.