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13. A Novel Role for Nutrition in the Alteration of Functional Microdomains on the Cell Surface
Abstract
Membrane rafts are ordered microdomains of the plasma membrane consisting of cholesterol, sphingolipids, and saturated fatty acids which appear to regulate many cellular signaling pathways. One such type of membrane raft is caveolae, which are cave-like invaginations of the plasma membrane. Interestingly, changes in the acyl composition of cellular membranes have been shown to alter the specific localization of membrane raft associated proteins and their function. This is noteworthy because modification of membrane acyl composition is readily accomplished through changes in dietary fat composition. Here we describe a common approach used to fractionate cell membranes to obtain an enriched preparation of caveolae and gas chromatographic techniques to determine fatty acyl composition. In addition, methods used to visualize and quantify lipid rafts using a fluorescent probe Laurdan in living cells will also be described.
Affiliation(s): (1) Department of Nutritional Sciences, University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, ON, Canada
(2) Center for Environmental and Rural Health, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
(3) Program in Integrative Nutrition & Complex Diseases, Genomics & Bioinformatics Facility Core Center for Environmental and Rural Health, Kieberg Biotechnology Center, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
Series: Methods in Molecular Biology  |  Volume: 579  |  Pub. Date: Oct-02-2009  |  Page Range: 261-270  |  DOI: 10.1007/978-1-60761-322-0_13
Subject:  Cell Biology
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