Behavior of pyrene as a polarity probe in palmitoylsphingomyelin and palmitoylsphingomyelin/cholesterol bilayers: A molecular dynamics simulation study

- N-Palmitoylsphingomyelin/cholesterol bilayers are simulated in presence of pyrene.
- The presence of pyrene does not affect the host bilayer properties significantly.
- Pyrene dynamics are considerably slowed down by the addition of cholesterol.
- Pyrene location inside the bilayer hydrocarbon region is not affected by cholesterol.
- However, pyrene hydration is reduced upon increasing the cholesterol concentration.