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Transient confinement zones: A type of lipid raft?

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Lipids

Abstract

Many important signaling events are initiated at the cell membrane. To facilitate efficient signal transduction upon stimulation, membrane microdomains, also known as lipid rafts, are postulated to serve as platforms to recruit components involved in the signaling complex, but few methods exist to study rafts in vivo. Single particle tracking provides an approach to study the plasma membrane of living cells on the nano-scale. The trajectories of single gold particles bound to membrane proteins and lipids are characterized in terms of both random and confined diffusion; the latter occurs in “transient confinement zones”. Here we review transient confinement zones and some of their implications for membrane structure and function.

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Abbreviations

DOPE:

1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine

DRM:

detergent-resistant membrane(s)

Fabs:

single-valence fragments

GFP:

green fluorescent protein

GPI:

glycosylphosphatidylinositol

GSL:

glycosphingolipids

RCT:

relative confinement time

SFK:

Src family kinase

SPT:

single particle tracking

TCZ:

transient confinement zone(s)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 27599-7090, Chapel Hill, North Carolina

    Ken Jacobson

  2. Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, University of North Carolina, 220 Taylor Hall, 27599-7090, Chapel Hill, NC

    Yun Chen, Bing Yang & Ken Jacobson

Authors
  1. Yun Chen
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  2. Bing Yang
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  3. Ken Jacobson
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ken Jacobson.

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Chen, Y., Yang, B. & Jacobson, K. Transient confinement zones: A type of lipid raft?. Lipids 39, 1115–1119 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-004-1337-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11745-004-1337-9

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