MEMBRANE

TRANSPORT
•One of the most important functions of cellular
membranes is to control the passage of materials
into and out of the organelles and the cell.
•The plasma membrane is both a barrier and
gateway between the cytoplasm and ECF.
•The methods of moving substances through the
membrane can be classified in two overlapping ways:
• Passive Mechanism
• Active Mechanism
•Passive mechanisms require no energy (ATP)
expenditure by the cell. In most cases, the random
molecular motion of the particles themselves
provides the necessary energy.
•Active mechanisms, however, consume ATP. These
include active transport and vesicular transport.
•Filtration is a process
in which a physical
pressure forces fluid
through a selectively
permeable
membrane.
•Simple diffusion is the
net movement of
particles from a place
of high concentration
to a place of lower
concentration as a
result of their
constant, spontaneous
motion.
•Diffusion rates are important to cell survival because
they determine how quickly a cell can acquire
nutrients or rid itself of wastes.
• Temperature
• Molecular Weight
• “Steepness” of the concentration gradient
• Membrane Permeability
•Diffusion through a membrane depends on how permeable
it is to the particles.
Example:
• potassium ions diffuse more rapidly than sodium ions through a plasma
membrane.
• Nonpolar, hydrophobic, lipid soluble substances such as oxygen, nitric oxide,
alcohol, and steroids diffuse through the phospholipid regions of plasma
membrane.
• Water and small charged, hydrophilic solutes such as electrolytes don’t mix
with lipids but diffuse primarily through channel proteins in the membrane.
•Osmosis is the net flow of water from one side of a
selectively permeable membrane to the other. It is
crucial to the body’s water distribution (fluid
balance).
•Imbalances in osmosis underlie such problems as
diarrhea, constipation, hypertension, and edema
(tissue swelling);
•A hypotonic solution has a lower concentration of
nonpermeating solutes than the intracellular fluid
(ICF). Cells in a hypotonic solution absorb water,
swell, and may burst (lyse).
•A hypertonic solution is one with a higher
concentration of nonpermeating solutes than the ICF.
It causes cells to lose water and shrivel (crenate).
•In isotonic solutions, the total concentration of
nonpermeating solutes is the same as in the ICF—
hence, isotonic solutions cause no change in cell
volume or shape.
•Carrier-mediated transport is an energy-dependent
pathway generally used by small hydrophilic
molecules. There are specific receptors on the
membrane of carriers that recognize the target
molecules and transport them across the cell.
•There are three kinds of carriers:
• carries only one type of solute.
• Some carriers move two or more solutes through a
membrane simultaneously in the same direction; this process
is called cotransport and the carrier protein that performs it is
called a symport.
• Other carriers move two or more solutes in opposite
directions; this process is called countertransport and the
carrier protein is called an antiport.
•There are three mechanisms of carrier-mediated
transport: facilitated diffusion, primary active
transport, and secondary active transport.
•Facilitated diffusion is the carrier mediated transport
of a solute through a membrane down its
concentration gradient. It requires no expenditure of
metabolic energy (ATP) by the cell.
• It transports solutes such as glucose
•Primary active transport is a process in which a carrier
moves a substance through a cell membrane up its
concentration gradient using energy provided by ATP.
•ATP supplies this energy by transferring a phosphate group
to the transport protein.
•Active transport also enables cells to absorb amino acids
that are already more concentrated in the cytoplasm than in
the ECF.
•Vesicular Transport move large particles, droplets of fluid,
or numerous molecules at once through the membrane,
contained in bubblelike vesicles of membrane.
•Vesicular processes that bring matter into a cell are called
endocytosis and those that release material from a cell
are called exocytosis.
•These processes employ motor proteins whose movements
are energized by ATP.
•There are three forms of endocytosis: phagocytosis,
pinocytosis, and receptor-mediated endocytosis.
•Phagocytosis, or “cell eating,” is the process of
engulfing particles such as bacteria, dust, and cellular
debris— particles large enough to be seen with a
microscope.
•For example, neutrophils (a class of white blood cells)
protect the body from infection by phagocytizing and
killing bacteria. A neutrophil spends most of its life
crawling about in the connective tissues by means of
its pseudopods. When a neutrophil encounters a
bacterium, it surrounds it with pseudopods and traps
it in a vesicle called a phagosome.
•Pinocytosis, or “cell
drinking,” is the process
of taking in droplets of
ECF containing
molecules of some use
to the cell.
•pinocytosis occurs in all
human cells.
•Receptor-mediated endocytosis is a more selective
form of either phagocytosis or pinocytosis. It
enables a cell to take in specific molecules from the
ECF with a minimum of unnecessary matter.
1. Particles in the ECF bind to specific receptors on the
plasma membrane.
2. The receptors then cluster together and the
membrane sinks in at this point, creating a pit coated
with a peripheral membrane protein called clathrin.
3. The pit soon pinches off to form a clathrin-coated
vesicle in the cytoplasm.
•Exocytosis a process of discharging material from a
cell.
•for example, when endothelial cells release insulin to
the tissue fluid,
•sperm cells release enzymes for penetrating an egg,
mammary gland cells secrete milk sugar,
•and other gland cells release hormones.