Phospholipid scrambling on the plasma membrane.

Abstract

Phospholipids are asymmetrically distributed at plasma membrane in normal cells, and scrambled in various biological situations such as blood clotting and apoptotic cell death. Recent studies revealed that phospholipid scrambling is mediated by at least two independent mechanisms. An eight transmembrane-containing protein TMEM16F Ca(2+)-dependently promotes the phospholipid scrambling, which is required for the PS exposure in activated platelets during blood clotting. On the other hand, a six transmembrane-containing protein Xk-related family protein 8 is activated by caspases during apoptosis and promotes the phospholipid scrambling, thus exposing PS as an "eat-me-signal." In this chapter, we describe procedures for assaying phospholipid scrambling.