So why, you may wonder, is this dynamic structure of biologi- cal membranes so important? Now, with new understanding of the precise composition, lo- cation and function of the lip- ids, proteins and sugars that compose the membrane, we can


use dietary methods to provide the essential molecules that re- juvenate and repair biological membranes. This is important, because we have learned that in every disease, illness, and even in normal aging, biological membranes are damaged, and


this has important implications in determining whether func- tions are lost. We can breathe new life into aging and sick cells by understanding and re- storing this remarkable inven- tion of nature and evolution.


Disclosure: Garth L. Nicolson, PhD has an educational grant from NTI.


A Special Note from Garth Nicolson PhD Why Lipid Replacement Therapy(LRT®) is Key to our Health


In the mid-1960s I had the honor of working with Professor S. J. Singer on the Fluid Mosaic Model of Biological Membranes for my doctoral thesis. At the time the cell membrane was thought to be a rather static three-layer structure with lipids sand- wiched in between protein inner and outer layers. However, we knew that this static 3-layer struc- ture did not fit with the wide range of physical and chemical information that had recently become available on membrane structure.


The trick was how to reconcile the physical-chem- ical-electrical properties of biological membranes with some of the thesis data I was collecting on the low rates of flip-flop across membranes of com- ponents like glycoproteins and their rather rapid rates of lateral motion in the plane of the mem- brane. The only way we could fit all of the data into a universal model of cellular membranes was to propose that there were two classes of membrane components, one class that was integral to the membrane and could not be easily separated from the membrane without destroying it and another class that was peripheral and could be removed without loss of membrane integrity. The integral components were proposed to be the asymmetri- cal phospholipids (phosphatidyl lipids) that natu- rally form into bilayer ionic barrier structures and proteins and glycoproteins that were also asym- metrical in structure with their lipid-binding and water-hating portions of their structures imbedded deep into the lipid bilayer (some even penetrating entirely across the lipid bilayer) and their lipid-hat- ing and water-binding portions of their structures


extending away from the membrane lipids.


In this way the integral membrane proteins and glycoproteins can literally float in and move later- ally in a bilayer sea of fluid phospholipids. What amazed me at the time was how rapid this lateral movement of at least some membrane glycopro- teins could be in the membrane plane. Tagging specific membrane glycoproteins with fluorescent markers allowed us to follow in real time the move- ments of these components relative to the lateral movements of phospholipids, which we knew from electron spin resonance studies were quite rapid.


However, not all proteins in the membrane move rapidly in the membrane plane, and I later went on to determine that some membrane protein and gly- coprotein components were anchored by compo- nents inside, or in some cases outside, of the cell. Later some of these were found to be cytoskeletal components inside the cell and extracellular ma- trix components outside the cell. So some mem- brane molecules could move rapidly in the plane of the membrane and some were rather fixed in place and unable to freely move.


The basic structure of biological membranes turned out to be the same for the plasma or cell membrane as well as for the various intracellular membranes (nuclear membrane, mitochondrial membrane, etc.). Although each of these intracel- lular membranes had unique characteristics and components, they all had the same basic charac- teristics of the Fluid Mosaic Model. For example, take the mitochondria—the energy-generating or-


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