Lipidic intramembranous particles

Abstract

In 1979 we described for the first time the phenomenon of 'lipidic intramembranous particles' or 'lipidic particles' in model membranes. These particles have been called 'lipidic particles' since they were found in pure lipid systems, and thus must originate from a specific lipid organization. Such lipidic particles have been found in a variety of lipid mixtures and in total lipid extracts under physiological conditions in excess water. A common feature of these lipid systems is that at least one of the lipids prefers to adopt the hexagonal II (Hn) phase when dispersed in pure form. n this review I will try to evaluate all the data concerning the phenomenon of 'lipidic particles'.