Regarding

biological membrane A biological membrane, biomembrane or cell membrane is a selectively permeable membrane that separates the interior of a cell from the external environment or creates intracellular compartments by serving as a boundary between one part of the ce ...

s, the liquid ordered phase is a

liquid crystal Liquid crystal (LC) is a state of matter whose properties are between those of conventional liquids and those of solid crystals. For example, a liquid crystal may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. T ...

line phase of a lipid bilayer, and is of significant biological importance. It occurs in many lipid mixtures combining

cholesterol Cholesterol is any of a class of certain organic molecules called lipids. It is a sterol (or modified steroid), a type of lipid. Cholesterol is biosynthesized by all animal cells and is an essential structural component of animal cell mem ...

with a

phospholipid Phospholipids, are a class of lipids whose molecule has a hydrophilic "head" containing a phosphate group and two hydrophobic "tails" derived from fatty acids, joined by an alcohol residue (usually a glycerol molecule). Marine phospholipids typ ...

and/or sphingolipids e.g.

sphingomyelin Sphingomyelin (SPH, ˌsfɪŋɡoˈmaɪəlɪn) is a type of sphingolipid found in animal cell membranes, especially in the membranous myelin sheath that surrounds some nerve cell axons. It usually consists of phosphocholine and ceramide, or a ethano ...

. This phase has been related to

lipid rafts The plasma membranes of cells contain combinations of glycosphingolipids, cholesterol and protein receptors organised in glycolipoprotein lipid microdomains termed lipid rafts. Their existence in cellular membranes remains somewhat controversial. ...

that may exist in

plasma membrane The cell membrane (also known as the plasma membrane (PM) or cytoplasmic membrane, and historically referred to as the plasmalemma) is a biological membrane that separates and protects the interior of all cells from the outside environment (t ...

Definition

The liquid ordered phase can be defined as: * fluid and lamellar phase, including the

Wide angle X-ray scattering In X-ray crystallography, wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS) or wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) is the analysis of Bragg peaks scattered to wide angles, which (by Bragg's law) are caused by sub-nanometer-sized structures. It is an X-ray-diffr ...

pattern centered by broad diffraction peak at 4.2Å * acyl

hydrocarbon chain In organic chemistry, hydrocarbons ( compounds composed solely of carbon and hydrogen) are divided into two classes: aromatic compounds and aliphatic compounds (; G. ''aleiphar'', fat, oil). Aliphatic compounds can be saturated, like hexane, or ...

s are in the all-''trans'' state * rapid lateral diffusion * ²H- NMR quadrupolar splitting is ca. 50 kHz

History

This was first called the liquid ordered phase by Ipsen et al. (1987). However, it has also been called the LG_I subgel phase by Huang et al. (1993) and the β phase by Vist and Davis (1990).

References

* Ipsen, J. H., G. Karlstrom, O. G. Mouritsen, H. Wennerstrom, and M. J. Zuckermann. 1987. Phase equilibria in the phosphatidylcholine-cholesterol system. Biochim. Biophys. Acta. 905:162–172. * Huang TH, Lee CWB, Dasgupta SK, Blume A, Griffin RG. 1993. "A C-13 and H-2 Nuclear-Magnetic-Resonance Study of Phosphatidylcholine Cholesterol Interactions - Characterization of Liquid-Gel Phases." Biochemistry 32(48):13277-13287 * Vist MR, Davis JH. 1990. "Phase-Equilibria of Cholesterol Dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine Mixtures - H-2 Nuclear Magnetic-Resonance and Differential Scanning Calorimetry." Biochemistry 29(2):451-464. Membrane biology Liquid crystals {{biochem-stub