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Fifty Years of the Fluid–Mosaic Model of Biomembrane Structure and Organization and Its Importance in Biomedicine with Particular Emphasis on Membrane Lipid Replacement

The Fluid–Mosaic Model has been the accepted general or basic model for biomembrane structure and organization for the last 50 years. In order to establish a basic model for biomembranes, some general principles had to be established, such as thermodynamic assumptions, various molecular interactions...

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Autores principales: Nicolson, Garth L., Ferreira de Mattos, Gonzalo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9313417/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35885016
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10071711
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author Nicolson, Garth L.
Ferreira de Mattos, Gonzalo
author_facet Nicolson, Garth L.
Ferreira de Mattos, Gonzalo
author_sort Nicolson, Garth L.
collection PubMed
description The Fluid–Mosaic Model has been the accepted general or basic model for biomembrane structure and organization for the last 50 years. In order to establish a basic model for biomembranes, some general principles had to be established, such as thermodynamic assumptions, various molecular interactions, component dynamics, macromolecular organization and other features. Previous researchers placed most membrane proteins on the exterior and interior surfaces of lipid bilayers to form trimolecular structures or as lipoprotein units arranged as modular sheets. Such membrane models were structurally and thermodynamically unsound and did not allow independent lipid and protein lateral movements. The Fluid–Mosaic Membrane Model was the only model that accounted for these and other characteristics, such as membrane asymmetry, variable lateral movements of membrane components, cis- and transmembrane linkages and dynamic associations of membrane components into multimolecular complexes. The original version of the Fluid–Mosaic Membrane Model was never proposed as the ultimate molecular description of all biomembranes, but it did provide a basic framework for nanometer-scale biomembrane organization and dynamics. Because this model was based on available 1960s-era data, it could not explain all of the properties of various biomembranes discovered in subsequent years. However, the fundamental organizational and dynamic aspects of this model remain relevant to this day. After the first generation of this model was published, additional data on various structures associated with membranes were included, resulting in the addition of membrane-associated cytoskeletal, extracellular matrix and other structures, specialized lipid–lipid and lipid–protein domains, and other configurations that can affect membrane dynamics. The presence of such specialized membrane domains has significantly reduced the extent of the fluid lipid membrane matrix as first proposed, and biomembranes are now considered to be less fluid and more mosaic with some fluid areas, rather than a fluid matrix with predominantly mobile components. However, the fluid–lipid matrix regions remain very important in biomembranes, especially those involved in the binding and release of membrane lipid vesicles and the uptake of various nutrients. Membrane phospholipids can associate spontaneously to form lipid structures and vesicles that can fuse with various cellular membranes to transport lipids and other nutrients into cells and organelles and expel damaged lipids and toxic hydrophobic molecules from cells and tissues. This process and the clinical use of membrane phospholipid supplements has important implications for chronic illnesses and the support of healthy mitochondria, plasma membranes and other cellular membrane structures.
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spelling pubmed-93134172022-07-26 Fifty Years of the Fluid–Mosaic Model of Biomembrane Structure and Organization and Its Importance in Biomedicine with Particular Emphasis on Membrane Lipid Replacement Nicolson, Garth L. Ferreira de Mattos, Gonzalo Biomedicines Review The Fluid–Mosaic Model has been the accepted general or basic model for biomembrane structure and organization for the last 50 years. In order to establish a basic model for biomembranes, some general principles had to be established, such as thermodynamic assumptions, various molecular interactions, component dynamics, macromolecular organization and other features. Previous researchers placed most membrane proteins on the exterior and interior surfaces of lipid bilayers to form trimolecular structures or as lipoprotein units arranged as modular sheets. Such membrane models were structurally and thermodynamically unsound and did not allow independent lipid and protein lateral movements. The Fluid–Mosaic Membrane Model was the only model that accounted for these and other characteristics, such as membrane asymmetry, variable lateral movements of membrane components, cis- and transmembrane linkages and dynamic associations of membrane components into multimolecular complexes. The original version of the Fluid–Mosaic Membrane Model was never proposed as the ultimate molecular description of all biomembranes, but it did provide a basic framework for nanometer-scale biomembrane organization and dynamics. Because this model was based on available 1960s-era data, it could not explain all of the properties of various biomembranes discovered in subsequent years. However, the fundamental organizational and dynamic aspects of this model remain relevant to this day. After the first generation of this model was published, additional data on various structures associated with membranes were included, resulting in the addition of membrane-associated cytoskeletal, extracellular matrix and other structures, specialized lipid–lipid and lipid–protein domains, and other configurations that can affect membrane dynamics. The presence of such specialized membrane domains has significantly reduced the extent of the fluid lipid membrane matrix as first proposed, and biomembranes are now considered to be less fluid and more mosaic with some fluid areas, rather than a fluid matrix with predominantly mobile components. However, the fluid–lipid matrix regions remain very important in biomembranes, especially those involved in the binding and release of membrane lipid vesicles and the uptake of various nutrients. Membrane phospholipids can associate spontaneously to form lipid structures and vesicles that can fuse with various cellular membranes to transport lipids and other nutrients into cells and organelles and expel damaged lipids and toxic hydrophobic molecules from cells and tissues. This process and the clinical use of membrane phospholipid supplements has important implications for chronic illnesses and the support of healthy mitochondria, plasma membranes and other cellular membrane structures. MDPI 2022-07-15 /pmc/articles/PMC9313417/ /pubmed/35885016 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10071711 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Nicolson, Garth L.
Ferreira de Mattos, Gonzalo
Fifty Years of the Fluid–Mosaic Model of Biomembrane Structure and Organization and Its Importance in Biomedicine with Particular Emphasis on Membrane Lipid Replacement
title Fifty Years of the Fluid–Mosaic Model of Biomembrane Structure and Organization and Its Importance in Biomedicine with Particular Emphasis on Membrane Lipid Replacement
title_full Fifty Years of the Fluid–Mosaic Model of Biomembrane Structure and Organization and Its Importance in Biomedicine with Particular Emphasis on Membrane Lipid Replacement
title_fullStr Fifty Years of the Fluid–Mosaic Model of Biomembrane Structure and Organization and Its Importance in Biomedicine with Particular Emphasis on Membrane Lipid Replacement
title_full_unstemmed Fifty Years of the Fluid–Mosaic Model of Biomembrane Structure and Organization and Its Importance in Biomedicine with Particular Emphasis on Membrane Lipid Replacement
title_short Fifty Years of the Fluid–Mosaic Model of Biomembrane Structure and Organization and Its Importance in Biomedicine with Particular Emphasis on Membrane Lipid Replacement
title_sort fifty years of the fluid–mosaic model of biomembrane structure and organization and its importance in biomedicine with particular emphasis on membrane lipid replacement
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9313417/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35885016
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines10071711
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