Phosphatidylserine

What Is Phosphatidylserine?

Phosphatidylserine is a phospholipid: two fatty tails, a phosphate, and the amino acid serine at the head. Every cell membrane you have contains some. This one is built from sunflower lecithin rather than soy, at 150 mg per serving.

How It Works in the Body

A membrane is a two-layer sheet, and the two layers are not alike. Phosphatidylserine sits almost entirely on the inner face, looking into the cell. It is the main negatively charged lipid there, and that charge is what proteins read.

Enzymes with positively charged patches dock against it, which holds a signal at the membrane instead of letting it drift off. When a cell reaches the end of its life the lipid flips outward, and scavenging cells read that flip as the cue to clear it.

What It Supports

• Cell membranes: Phosphatidylserine is built into the membrane of every cell you have, where it supports normal membrane structure.
• Nerve tissue: Brain tissue holds some of the body's highest concentrations, and it helps maintain the structure of nerve cell membranes.
• Docking surface: Its negative charge gives enzymes such as protein kinase C somewhere to bind at the membrane.
• Sunflower sourcing: The phospholipid comes from sunflower lecithin, so nothing in it is soy-derived.

Who It May Suit

People avoiding soy, since most phosphatidylserine is made from soy lecithin. The capsule is cellulose and the stearate comes from a vegetable source, so it fits vegetarian and vegan eating. It also suits anyone who wants one phospholipid on its own rather than a blend.

Good To Know

Phosphatidylserine is made by swapping the head group of lecithin's phosphatidylcholine for serine, with an enzyme doing the exchange. Talk with your healthcare provider before use if you take a blood thinner or have surgery scheduled, since this phospholipid is part of the surface where clotting proteins assemble.