A Coarse Grained Model for a Lipid Membrane with Physiological Composition and Leaflet Asymmetry
Fig 4
Lipid compositions in symmetric and asymmetric membrane.
(A) The membrane resulting from self-assembly of randomly mixed lipids exhibited a symmetric distribution for every type of phospholipid and cholesterol. (B) In membrane membranes resulting from asymmetric initial configuration, all lipid types were asymmetrically distributed. As in physiological membranes, PPCS and POPC were most abundant in the IV leaflet and POPS and POPE most abundant in the CP leaflet. Cholesterol was symmetrically distributed. (C) Frequency histograms of the distance of lipids’ center of mass to membrane’s center of mass (z = 0) shows the asymmetric lipid composition and also shows the presence of a small fraction of cholesterol located at the membrane center.