|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||
| Home Help Feedback Subscriptions Archive Search Table of Contents | |||||
|
Fig. 4. When lipids are assimilated with solid structures, they can be divided into three groups (Israelachvili and Mitchell, 1975): flat lipids, which are roughly cylindrical; lipids with a positive curvature, which have a wider hydrophilic headgroup than the cross-sectional surface occupied by their acyl chains; and lipids with negative curvature, which have a smaller headgroup than the area of a cross-section of their hydrophobic part. Accumulation of lipids with positive curvature can create lipid pores in a lamellar bilayer, whereas lipids with negative curvature adopt a non-lamellar structure called hexagonal II phase. Both of these structures have been suggested to contribute to the permeabilization of the mitochondrial outer membrane that occurs during apoptosis. PC, phosphatidylcholine; PG, phosphatidylglycerol; PS, phosphatidylserine; PI, phosphatidylinositol; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine; DAG, diacylglycerol.
|
