The structure of serum lipoproteins as analysed by X-ray small-angle scattering

Serum lipoproteins are the macromolecular lipid–protein complexes, soluble in aqueous environment, which act as transport vehicles for polar and apolar lipids in the bloodstream. The growing multidisciplinary interest in these systems stems on the one hand from the fact that their physiological functions are intimately related to the pathways of lipid metabolism and catabolism, and on the other hand from their macromolecular nature which renders them accessible to a large variety of experimental approaches for the study of the physical and chemical principles of lipid-protein interaction.