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Surmounting barriers in ionic channels

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2009

K. E. Cooper ,
P. Y. Gates  and
R. S. Eisenberg
K. E. Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Rush Medical College, 1750 W. Harrison, Chicago IL 60612, U.S.A.
P. Y. Gates
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Rush Medical College, 1750 W. Harrison, Chicago IL 60612, U.S.A.
R. S. Eisenberg
Affiliation:
Department of Physiology, Rush Medical College, 1750 W. Harrison, Chicago IL 60612, U.S.A.
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Extract

Biological cells are defined by the membrane that shields their vital molecules from the environment. The lipid bilayer of the membrane is an effective dielectric shield (Parsegian, 1969; Andersen, 1978; Honig et al. 1986), preventing penetration by charged molecules: the lipid presents a large electrostatic energy barrier because it cannot neutralize the charge of solute molecules nearly as well as water. This energy barrier inhibits the permeation of solutes with local charge, even metabolites. Of course, metabolites do enter cells, and so physiologists have suspected (for a very long time, Hille, 1984, ch. 8) that the membrane shield is pierced by aqueous channels, through which solutes diffuse (with their local charge substantially neutralized) as they cross the membrane. These aqueous pores now have molecular reality (e.g. Noda et al. 1984; Miller, 1986). Each is formed by a specialized protein, integral to membranes, perhaps shaped like a thick-walled pipe, called ionic channels. Channels control the movement of many important molecules in and out of cells by the ‘gating’ mechanism that controls their opening and closing and by the selective properties of their open channel.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , August 1988 , pp. 331 - 364
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1988

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