Transport And Diffusion Across Cell Membranes

Wilfred Stein

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9780126646603
• eBook ISBN: 9780323143202
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Botany
• Index: Biological Sciences

Transport and Diffusion across Cell Membranes is a comprehensive treatment of the transport and diffusion of molecules and ions across cell membranes. This book shows that the same kinetic equations (with appropriate modification) can describe all the specialized membrane transport systems: the pores, the carriers, and the two classes of pumps. The kinetic formalism is developed step by step and the features that make a system effective in carrying out its biological role are highlighted. This book is organized into six chapters and begins with an introduction to the structure and dynamics of cell membranes, followed by a discussion on how the membrane acts as a barrier to the transmembrane diffusion of molecules and ions. The following chapters focus on the role of the membrane's protein components in facilitating transmembrane diffusion of specific molecules and ions, measurements of diffusion through pores and the kinetics of diffusion, and the structure of such pores and their biological regulation. This book methodically introduces the reader to the carriers of cell membranes, the kinetics of facilitated diffusion, and cotransport systems. The primary active transport systems are considered, emphasizing the pumping of an ion (sodium, potassium, calcium, or proton) against its electrochemical gradient during the coupled progress of a chemical reaction while a conformational change of the pump enzyme takes place. This book is of interest to advanced undergraduate students, as well as to graduate students and researchers in biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, and biophysics.

Table of contents

• Front Cover
• Transport and Diffusion Across Cell Membranes
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Dedication
• Preface
• List of Symbols
• Chapter 1. Physical Basis of Movement across Cell Membranes
• Chapter 2. Simple Diffusion across the Membrane Bilayer
• Chapter 3. Channels across the Cell Membrane
• Chapter 4. Facilitated Diffusion: The Simple Carrier
• Chapter 5. The Cotransport Systems: Two Substrates That Are Carried on a Single Transporter
• Chapter 6. Primary Active Transport: Chemiosmosis
• Appendix A: Mathematical Analysis of the Carrier Model for Facilitated Diffusion
• Appendix B: Kinetics of the Cotransporter Model: The Equilibrium Assumption
• Bibliography
• Index