Effects of cholesterol on the size distribution and bending modulus of lipid vesicles

Mohammad Abu Sayem Karal; Nadia Akter Mokta; Victor Levadny; Marina Belaya; Marzuk Ahmed; Md Kabir Ahamed; Shareef Ahammed

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0263119

Effects of cholesterol on the size distribution and bending modulus of lipid vesicles

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 28;17(1):e0263119. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0263119. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Mohammad Abu Sayem Karal¹, Nadia Akter Mokta¹, Victor Levadny², Marina Belaya³, Marzuk Ahmed¹, Md Kabir Ahamed¹, Shareef Ahammed¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
² Theoretical Problem Center of Physico-Chemical Pharmacology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia.
³ Department of Mathematics of Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

The influence of cholesterol fraction in the membranes of giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) on their size distributions and bending moduli has been investigated. The membranes of GUVs were synthesized by a mixture of two elements: electrically neutral lipid 1, 2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC) and cholesterol and also a mixture of three elements: electrically charged lipid 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phospho-(1'-rac-glycerol) (DOPG), DOPC and cholesterol. The size distributions of GUVs have been presented by a set of histograms. The classical lognormal distribution is well fitted to the histograms, from where the average size of vesicle is obtained. The increase of cholesterol content in the membranes of GUVs increases the average size of vesicles in the population. Using the framework of Helmholtz free energy of the system, the theory developed by us is extended to explain the experimental results. The theory determines the influence of cholesterol on the bending modulus of membranes from the fitting of the proper histograms. The increase of cholesterol in GUVs increases both the average size of vesicles in population and the bending modulus of membranes.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cholesterol / chemistry*
Models, Chemical*
Phosphatidylcholines / chemistry*
Phosphatidylglycerols / chemistry*
Unilamellar Liposomes / chemistry*

Substances

Phosphatidylcholines
Phosphatidylglycerols
Unilamellar Liposomes
1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoglycerol
Cholesterol
1,2-oleoylphosphatidylcholine

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology, Bangladesh (No. 39.00.0000.009.14.011.20-Phy’s-566/1902), Ministry of Education, Bangladesh (No. 37.20.0000.004.033.020.2016.1053), Information and Communication Technology Division (ICTD), (Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology), Bangladesh (No. 56.00.0000.028.33.105.18-05) and Committee for Advanced Studies and Research (CASR) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Bangladesh (No. DAERS/R-01/CASR-339th/2021) to Mohammad Abu Sayem Karal. Nadia Akter Mokta would like to acknowledge the Prime Minister's Education Assistance Trust, Bangladesh for providing the fellowship. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. There was no additional external funding received for this study.