Lipid Rafts - Sphingomyelin and Cholesterol
Lipid rafts are specialized domains in the cell membrane that differ from the surrounding membrane physically and chemically. These lipid rafts are liquid ordered domains, concentrated in sphingolipids and cholesterol, "floating" in a liquid disordered sea enriched in other unsaturated phospholipids. It is postulated that they function as sites of cell signaling, endocytosis and viral fusion. Similar liquid-liquid immiscibility has been observed in synthetic lipid membranes composed of two or three components as well.
We are making a sphingomyelin and cholesterol partial phase diagram to study the melting behavior of these two lipids.