Cited by 292Lipid Membrane Structure and BehaviorFatty Acid Research and HealthLipid metabolism and biosynthesis

Polyunsaturated fatty acid–cholesterol interactions: Domain formation in membranes

Open access
Wassall, Stephen R., Stillwell, William·2009·Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes

Abstract

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) constitute an influential group of molecules that promote health by an as yet unknown mechanism. They are structurally distinguished from less unsaturated fatty acids by the presence of a repeating =CH-CH(2)-CH= unit that produces an extremely flexible chain rapidly reorienting through conformational states. The most highly unsaturated case in point is docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) with 6 double bonds. This review will summarize how the high disorder of DHA affects the properties of the membrane phospholipids into which the PUFA incorporates, focusing upon the profound impact on the interaction with cholesterol. Results obtained with model membranes using an array of biophysical techniques will be presented. They demonstrate DHA and the sterol possesses a mutual aversion that drives the lateral segregation of DHA-containing phospholipids into highly disordered domains away from cholesterol. These domains are compositionally and organizationally the opposite of lipid rafts, the ordered domain enriched in predominantly saturated sphingolipids "glued" together by cholesterol that is believed to serve as the platform for signaling proteins. We hypothesize that DHA-rich domains also form in the plasma membrane and are responsible, in part, for the diverse range of health benefits associated with DHA.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.bbamem.2008.10.011

Cites

96 of 96 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In KO astrocytes, the membrane phospholipid profile favored highly unsaturated phosphatidylcholine species and contained less sphingomyelin, rendering the membrane structurally incompatible with cholesterol.

    “In KO astrocytes, the membrane PL profile favored the highly unsaturated PC species and contained less SM, rendering the membrane structurally incompatible with cholesterol44.”

    From An iPSC-derived astrocyte model of fragile X syndrome exhibits dysregulated cholesterol homeostasis (2023) · cites this paper as [44]

    Section 5 (‘DHA has an aversion for cholesterol’; page unavailable) reports reduced cholesterol solubility in highly polyunsaturated PC membranes, and Section 6 describes cholesterol-poor domains formed by such lipids. The paper does not report a phospholipid profile for KO astrocytes or show that their membranes contain less sphingomyelin; its model-membrane findings do not establish that those astrocyte membranes are structurally incompatible with cholesterol. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. N. Salem Jr., P. Bougnoux, Asymmetry of phosphatidylethanolamine molecular species in the human lymphocyte plasma membrane, 24th Intl. Conf. Biochem. Lipids (1983) 44.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Wassall, S. R., & Stillwell, W.
Affiliations
Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis (US)
Corresponding author
Wassall, Stephen R.
Venue
Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2009-01
Volume
1788
Issue
1
Pages
24-32
ISSN
0005-2736 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2004029325
Cited by
292
References
96
Citations by year
2026: 10 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 30 · 2015: 18 · 2014: 14 · 2013: 18 · 2012: 19
FWCI
0.75
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Biomembranes (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Lipid Membrane Structure and Behavior
  • Health Sciences › Nursing › Nutrition and Dietetics › Fatty Acid Research and Health
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Biochemistry › Lipid metabolism and biosynthesis
Keywords
polyunsaturated fatty acids, docosahexaenoic acid, cholesterol, lipid rafts, membrane domain formation, lateral segregation, model membranes, plasma membrane, membrane fluidity
MeSH terms
Animals, Cholesterol, Docosahexaenoic Acids, Fatty Acids, Unsaturated, Humans, Hydrogen Bonding, Membranes, Models, Biological, Models, Molecular, Oleic Acids, Molecular Structure, Membrane Microdomains

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review