Effects of cholesterol on bilayers with various degrees of unsaturation of their phospholipid tails under mechanical stress

Abstract

, and then weakened. The non-monotonic concentration-effect gradually decreases as the degree of unsaturation of the phospholipid tails increases, and in particular, the mechanical strength of the DAPC bilayer hardly changes. The results suggest that cholesterol does not influence a bilayer composed of highly unsaturated phospholipids. Furthermore, lateral density distributions reveal that the distribution of cholesterol in the bilayer is related to the carbon tail unsaturation of the phospholipids.

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