TRANSPORT ACROSS THE

CELL MEMBRANE
BASIC MECHANISM OF CELLULAR
TRANSPORT

Guyton’s Textbook of Medical Physiology, 13th Ed

"Diffusion"
• Random molecular movement of substances molecule
by molecule through the cell Membrane
• Process:
• intermolecular spaces in the membrane
• in combination with a carrier protein.
• Utilizes the energy of the normal kinetic motion of
matter
Carrier Proteins
Intermolecular
spaces of the cell
membrane
Active Transport
• Movement of ions or other substances across the
membrane in combination with a carrier protein
• Causes the substance to move against an energy
gradient, such as from a low-concentration state to a
high-concentration state.
• Requires an additional source of energy besides
kinetic energy.
Silverthorne’s Human Physiology an Integrated Approach
Silverthorne’s Human Physiology an Integrated Approach
Diffusion Through the Cell Membrane

• Two subtypes
• Simple diffusion
• Facilitated diffusion.
Simple diffusion
• Kinetic movement of molecules or ions occurs through
• membrane opening
• through intermolecular spaces
• Without any interaction with carrier proteins in the membrane
• Rate of diffusion is determined by the:
• amount of substance available
• velocity of kinetic motion
• number and sizes of openings in the membrane through which the molecules
or ions can move
Simple diffusion
• Can occur through the cell membrane by two pathways:
• Substance is lipid soluble
• through the interstices of the lipid bilayer if the diffusing
• Lipid soluble substances
• Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon dioxide, and alcohols
• Rate of diffusion of substances through the membrane is directly proportional to its lipid
solubility.
• Substance is water soluble or Lipid-Insoluble Molecules
• Through watery channels that penetrate all the way through some of the large transport
proteins
• Water soluble
• Water Channels
• Lipid Insoluble
• Protein pore channels
Diffusion Through Protein Pores
Pores
• Are composed of integral cell membrane
proteins
• Form open tubes through the membrane
• Are always open
• Exhibits selective Permeability
• diameter of a pore
• its electrical charges
• called aquaphorins or water channels
Selective Permeability of Protein
Channels
• Highly selective
• Permeability is determined by
• diameter
• shape
• electrical charges
• chemical bonds along its inside surfaces.
• Gating of Protein Channels
• provides a means of controlling ion
permeability of the channels.
• controlled in two principal ways
• Voltage gating
• Chemical (ligand) gating
 Voltage gating
• the molecular conformation of the gate or of its chemical
bonds responds to the electrical potential across the cell
membrane
• channel conducts current either “all-or-none.”

__ __
+
__ __ __ + +
__ __ + +
__ __ +
when there is a strong negative charge on the inside of the cell membrane, this presumably could cause the
outside sodium gates to remain tightly closed; conversely, when the inside of the membrane loses its negative
charge, these gates would open suddenly and allow tremendous quantities of sodium to pass inward through
the sodium pores.
Potassium Channel

_
_ _ _
_ +
_ _ + +
+
+

the potassium gates are on the intracellular ends of the potassium channels, and
they open when the inside of the cell membrane becomes positively charged.
Chemical (ligand) gating
• are opened by the binding of a chemical substance (a ligand) with the
protein
• this causes a conformational or chemical bonding change in the protein
molecule that opens or closes the gate
• Acetylcholine channel
• Acetylcholine opens the gate of this channel
• providing a negatively charged pore of about 0.65 nanometer in diameter that allows
uncharged molecules or positive ions smaller than this diameter to pass through
Facilitated diffusion
• Requires interaction of a
carrier protein
• Carrier protein
• aids passage of the molecules
or ions through the membrane
• Binds chemically with the
substance being transported and
shuttling them through the
membrane in this form
• CONFORMATIONALCHANGE IN
THE CARRIER PROTEIN
Facilitated Diffusion
• Carrier-mediated diffusion
• substance transported
diffuses through the
membrane using a specific
carrier protein important
substances transported
• glucose
• most of the amino acids.
Mechanism

The rate at which molecules can be

transported by this mechanism can
never be greater than the rate at
which the carrier protein molecule can
undergo change back and forth
between its two states
As the concentration of the substance
increases the rate of diffusion also increases

in facilitated diffusion the rate of diffusion

approaches a maximum, called Vmax, as
the concentration of the diffusing substance
increases
Factors That Affect Net Rate of Diffusion
• Net Diffusion Rate is Proportional to the
Concentration Difference Across a Membrane
Factors That Affect Net Rate of Diffusion
• Effect of a Pressure Difference Across the
Membrane.
• Pressure - the sum of all the forces of the different
molecules striking a unit surface area at a given
instant
Osmosis Across Selectively Permeable
Membranes—"Net Diffusion” of Water
“Active Transport" of Substances Through
Membranes
• When a cell membrane moves molecules or ions “uphill” against a
concentration gradient (or “uphill” against an electrical or pressure
gradient) the process is called active transport
Primary Active Transport
• the energy is derived directly from breakdown of adenosine
triphosphate (ATP) or of some other high-energy phosphate
compound
• transport depends on carrier proteins
Secondary Active Transport.
• the energy is derived secondarily from energy that has been stored in
the form of ionic concentration differences of secondary molecular or
ionic substances between the two sides of a cell membrane,created
originally by primary active transport
• transport depends on carrier proteins
• in active transport, the carrier protein functions differently from the
carrier in facilitated diffusion because it is capable of imparting energy
to the transported substance to move it against the electrochemical
gradient