membrane cholesterol

[ianawhite]

Hey guys,

Anyone know of any resources that will give me information regarding cholesterol levels in the plasma membrane of endothelial cells compared to other cell types, specifically smooth muscle and fibroblast cells.?

I'm not interested in serum levels, just membrane abundances. I'm sure serum levels would affect membrane levels, but let's assume typical serum levels.

I'd also like to know if there are differences in the abundance of cholesterol in microvascular ECs compared to macrovascular ECs.

Cheers,
Ian

[beautifulmind420]

Your question is very specific. I mean you want to find out actual level of cholesterol being dumped on membrane which is really hard to find unless you find in particular journal articles. But I recommend you to find specific text book such as Cell membrane physiology, Cell membrane pathophysiology. I found one of the books very interesting regarding cholesterol levels: http://books.google.ca/books?id=cDz2x-V ... #PPA298,M1

I hope this helps!

[ianawhite]

Thanks for the book suggestion. While there is a lot of generic information regarding cholesterol biology in the book, what I'm really looking for is a study of cholesterol levels in cells associated with the vasculature. I've not had any luck trolling though PubMed and thought someone here might have an insight.

I'd like to know what the absolute, or relative, abundance of cholesterol is in ECs compared with SMC and fibroblasts. There are ways to measure it, but I'm not having any luck with my specific question. My guess is that there are those out there working on it as high serum cholesterol levels increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and cholesterol loading into plasma membranes probably has a role in the disease. This in not what I'm working on, but would like to know for a question I'm working on regarding adenoviral oncogenic transformation.

Any direct help would be much appreciated.

[ianawhite]

It's okay, I've figured it out. I just had to focus my searches on endothelial caveolae rather than cholesterol, but it provided in the information I was looking for.

[glynthincs]

This is a fascinating topic. I am very interested in membrane cholesterol.
The whole structure, function and morphology seems to depend on cholesterol.
The condensed cholesterol-rich lipid rafts have up to 50% molecular cholesterol.
I suspect it is able to facilitate bending by preferential condensing of one surface.
By associating cholesterol with CVD in 1957 and selling the idea
(much like ambulances are asociated with motorway blockages)
we have hugely misjudged the importance of cholesterol for over 40 years.
I can hardly find any texts that properly represent cholesterol in membranes.
the average membrane has about 20% molecular cholesterol - but it is never
considered.