Abstract
POLARIZED light studies1,2 have indicated that most or all lipid moieties of the myelin sheath are radially arranged. Finean3,4 correlated the X-ray diffraction patterns of fresh and lipid-solvent extracted myelin with known data about the form and size of lipid molecules and suggested that a phospholipid-cholesterol complex forms a part of myelin. According to this notion the long chain of the phospholipid moiety is lying radially with curling of the polar end group, so that the phosphate might serve to bind the lipid to protein, whereas the positively charged part of the molecule is closely associated with the hydroxyl group of cholesterol. The complex would have, therefore, the form of a U, with the cholesterol and the hydrocarbon chain of the phospholipid situated in a parallel fashion and in a radial direction.
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References
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BUBIS, J., WOLMAN, M. Arrangement of Cholesterol Molecules in the Myelin Sheath. Nature 195, 299 (1962). https://doi.org/10.1038/195299a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/195299a0
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