Cholesterol Induces Uneven Curvature of Asymmetric Lipid Bilayers
Figure 6
(a) Distributions of the membrane curvature in the simulation with and without cholesterol. (b) Free energy of transition from the equilibrium system without cholesterol to the equilibrium system with cholesterol as a function of the membrane curvature. Gray lines show hypothetical shape of the curve in the regions, which are not covered with data points. These lines are drawn for illustrative purposes in a qualitative manner and reflect the fact that the free energy profile must be limited by “walls” in order to insure the existence of steady states in the system.
