Cholesterol liquid crystal

Adamski, P. and Czyzewski, R. Activation energy and growth rate of spherulites of cholesterol liquid crystals. Soc. Phys. Crystallogr. 23, 725 (1978)... 

It will be highly interesting to study molecular dynamics of cholesterol liquid crystals. The effects of asymmetry on the microscopic orientational dynamics may reveal exciting phenomenon. 

Liquid Crystal CN/9. See Cholesterol Liquid crystal polymer... 

Diseases. Liquid crystals have been impHcated in a number of disease conditions in the human body. A complex cholesterol—phosphoHpid—Hpoprotein Hquid crystal phase has been identified in the initiation and maintenance of atheromatous deposits on the aortic intima in dissected human and rabbit arteries (40). The paracrystalHne nature of this precursor to plaque buildup with the resultant loss of arterial elasticity... 

Figure 3 Comparison of the densities (in g/cm ) of model compounds for membrane lipids computed from constant-pressure MD simulations with the coiTespondmg experimental values. The model compounds include solid octane and tricosane, liquid butane, octane, tetradecane, and eico-sane, and the glycerylphosphorylcholme, cyclopentylphosphorylcholme monohydrate, dilauroly-glycerol, anhydrous cholesterol, cholesterol monohydrate, and cholesterol acetate crystals. (Models from Refs. 18, 42, and 43).

Cholesterol s presence in liposome membranes has the effect of decreasing or even abolishing (at high cholesterol concentrations) the phase transition from the gel state to the fluid or liquid crystal state that occurs with increasing temperature. It also can modulate the permeability and fluidity of the associated membrane—increasing both parameters at temperatures below the phase transition point and decreasing both above the phase transition temperature. Most liposomal recipes include cholesterol as an integral component in membrane construction. 

Reinitzer discovered liquid crystallinity in 1888 the so-called fourth state of matter.4 Liquid crystalline molecules combine the properties of mobility of liquids and orientational order of crystals. This phenomenon results from the anisotropy in the molecules from which the liquid crystals are built. Different factors may govern this anisotropy, for example, the presence of polar and apolar parts in the molecule, the fact that it contains flexible and rigid parts, or often a combination of both. Liquid crystals may be thermotropic, being a state of matter in between the solid and the liquid phase, or they may be lyotropic, that is, ordering induced by the solvent. In the latter case the solvent usually solvates a certain part of the molecule while the other part of the molecule helps induce aggregation, leading to mesoscopic assemblies. The first thermotropic mesophase discovered was a chiral nematic or cholesteric phase (N )4 named after the fact that it was observed in a cholesterol derivative. In hindsight, one can conclude that this was not the simplest mesophase possible. In fact, this mesophase is chiral, since the molecules are ordered in... 

Thermotropic cholesterics were officially discovered2 in 1888 by the Austrian botanist Friederich Reinitzer, while studying the melting of cholesterol esters cholesteryl benzoate first melted to give a cloudy liquid that, at higher temperature, turned into an ordinary clear liquid. The cloudy liquid (the mesophase) was a thermotropic cholesteric liquid crystal. These phases... 

Cholesterol-phospholipid-lipoprotein liquid crystal phase, 15 112 Cholestyramine, 14 420... 

The so ealled a phase of the fatty alcohols is a thermotropic type smectic B liquid crystal with a hexagonal arrangement of the moleeules within the double layers. It is initially formed from the melt during the manufaeturing proeess and normally transformed into a erystalline modifleation on eooling. However, the erystallization of the gel matrix ean be avoided if the a phase ean be kept stable as it eools to room temperature. This ean be achieved by eombining appropriate surfaetants, such as myristyl or lauryl alcohol and cholesterol, a mixture of whieh forms a lamellar liquid... 

When mesophase, that is, liquid crystal, consisting of three components of bile salt, lecithin and cholesterol was produced, deposition of calcium salts of bile acids was observed on the cholesterol disk surface. The relation between mesophase formation and calcification will be elucidated in this paper. 

In many cases, these polymer chains take on a rod-like (calamitic LCPs) or even disc-like (discotic LCPs) conformation, but this does not affect the overall structural classification scheme. There are many organic compounds, though not polymeric in nature, that exhibit liquid crystallinity and play important roles in biological processes. For example, arteriosclerosis is possibly caused by the formation of a cholesterol containing liquid crystal in the arteries of the heart. Similarly, cell wall membranes are generally considered to have liquid crystalline properties. As interesting as these examples of liquid crystallinity in small, organic compounds are, we must limit the current discussion to polymers only. 

Research Focus Cholesterol-containing liquid crystals that selectively reflect light of various wavelengths. 

Originality While liquid-crystal cholesterol derivatives are reported in the literature,... 

Goldfinger (4) proposed preparing an alkoxy(meth)acrylate cholesterol derivative, (III), as a liquid-crystal composition. 

Deposition of liquid crystalline material containing cholesterol esters on the inner surfaces of human arteries is another nonequilibrium process in which much interest exists. No doubt there are other examples as well where dynamic phenomena involving liquid crystals are important in biological systems. 

The Singer and Nicholson (13) model for the plasma membrane, which now receives much support, is basically a smectic liquid crystal consisting of one bilayer of phospholipid (Figure 4a). The phospholipid bilayer contains cholesterol at a concentration which depends on cell type. Embedded in the lipid liquid crystal he protein molecules. Some of these protein molecules transverse the entire lipid bilayer and communicate both with the inside and the outside of the cells. Some of these may... 

Cholesteric liquid crystals Historically, the name is derived from cholesterol chiral molecules like the steroids show a certain form of the nematic phase, the cholesteric one. The rigid rods are oriented parallel within virtual layers in one preferred direction (director) the director changes from one single virtual layer to the next continuously, with a certain value creating a helix. The distance between two parallel oriented directors is called the pitch (ca 0.2 pm). 

Freidrich Reinirzer first reported liquid crystals. He found that a crystalline cholesterol ester first melted at 145.5 °C into a cloudy liquid that subsequently melted into a clear liquid at 178.5 °C. The term liquid crystal was first coined in 1890 by Lehman. 

Thermotropic liquid crystals come in two types calamitic and discotic. Calamitic phases (from the Greek for tube ) are all those that are caused by rod-like mesogens. The more recently characterised discotic phases are caused by disc-like species. Calamitic phases may be either nematic (from the Greek for thread ), smectic (from the Greek for soap ) or cholesteric (named after the cholesterol derivatives such as 13.4, which exhibit this behaviour). 

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