抄録
We have so far investigated the phase behavior of various kinds of sterol-containing binary bilayer membranes of phospholipids with different chemical structures by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and fluorescence spectroscopy using 6-propionyl-2-(N,N-dimethylamino)naphthalene (Prodan) as a probe, and constructed temperature- composition phase diagrams for those binary bilayers to clarify the effects of the sterols on the lateral organization of phospholipid molecules within the binary bilayer membrane. This review describes the compositiondependent phase behavior of different kinds of sterol-containing binary bilayer membranes by introducing our new concept based on the so-called superlattice view to explain how the sterol effects is varied with the variation in the chemical structure of the constituent phospholipids or sterols. In the last place, we briefly mention our recent attempt to examine whether cholesterol-containing binary model membrane will function as if it were the real cell membrane in terms of the binding ability of a cholesterol-dependent cytolytic toxin suilysin (SLY).
