Transport across the cell membrane

The structure of the cell membrane

The cell or plasma membrane determines what enters and leaves the cytoplasm of the cell. It
ensures that harmful substances do not enter the cell, while permitting useful substances to enter.
The cell membrane maintains the structural integrity of the cell.
How does the membrane determine which substances should enter the cell and which substances
should not? What makes the cell membrane semipermeable so that it can determine which
substances it can allow to pass through and which substances to keep out?
The answer lies in the nature of the structure of the membrane.
The cell membrane is made up of phospholipid molecules with attached phosphate groups (PO4).
In an aqueous medium, the phosphate end is attracted to water and is said to be hydrophilic
(water loving), while the other end consisting of two fatty acid chains is repelled by water and is
said to be hydrophobic (water hating).
When phospholipids are mixed in water, they rearrange themselves in such a way that their
hydrophilic heads face towards the water and the hydrophobic tails face away from the water.
The same situation occurs in the cell. Recall that a cell is surrounded by water on the outer
membrane and inner membrane (cytoplasm). This means that the side of the membrane that is
facing the interstitial fluid and the side that borders the cytoplasm are hydrophilic while the side
that is sandwiched between these two is hydrophobic.

Therefore, we can say that a bilayer is a sandwich-like structure whose outer surface, the surface
exposed to the watery medium outside and inner surface, i.e. the surface facing the cytoplasm,
are hydrophilic, while the unexposed interior is hydrophobic. The unexposed hydrophobic part is
a barrier to most substances that are dissolved in water.
Proteins span the lipid bilayer and form transport channels for water-soluble molecules and ions.
Some of the protein molecules associated with the membrane are peripheral proteins and are
attached to the outer or inner (cytoplasm) surface of the membrane but more to the latter. Others
are transmembrane proteins that traverse the entire width of membrane.
The cell membrane with its associated proteins is extremely dynamic. The peripheral proteins on
the inside of the cell (cytoplasm) serve as anchors for the cytoskeleton of the cell. They maintain
the shape of the cell.
Transmembrane proteins are mainly transport proteins, regulating the movement of molecules
into and out of the cells.

Fluid mosaic model

In animal cells, membrane proteins are often attached to branch like sugar molecules to form
glycoproteins that protrude from the membranes outer surface.
The proteins and glycoproteins that jut from the membrane create surface characteristics that are
so important to a cells interactions with other cells.
Proteins within the oily lipid sandwich freely swim laterally like a floating ship at sea. The
protein lipid bilayer is often called fluid mosaic because the proteins float in a fluid.
Peripheral proteins on the outside of the cell membrane and some transmembrane proteins, both
of which may bind with some Carbohydrate chains, give the cell its identity. For example, they
may act as receptors for hormones or determine blood group antigens (ABO, Rh glycoproteins)
or distinguish between self and nonself in immune systems.
Other signature proteins, as they are sometimes called, enable differentiating embryonic cells to
recognise one another and allow them to migrate to appropriate parts of the embryo.
Passive Diffusion
Diffusion is the movement of a substance from a region of high concentration to a region of low
concentration. This is known as moving down the gradient. A pinch of table sugar placed at the
bottom of a glass containing water will dissolve in water completely to form a solution of
uniform concentration. The sugar is referred to as the solute and water as the solvent.
Compounds in a tea bag placed in a cup of hot water diffuse uniformly throughout the water until
the colour of the water is brown. You can also use potassium permanganate instead of tea leaves.
Diffusion is faster at high temperatures. It is also faster in gases than in liquids and is slowest in
solids.

Passive diffudion
Osmosis
Osmosis is defined as the movement of water molecules from a region of higher concentration to
a region of lower concentration across a semi-permeable membrane.
The cell membrane is selectively permeable to molecules. Smaller molecules cross the cell
membrane more easily than large molecules. Water, carbon dioxide and oxygen cross the
membrane easily. Glucose and other large compounds are too large to cross easily.

In osmosis water moves from a region of low solute concentration to a region of high solute
concentration. In the diagram above water moves from A to B through the semi-permeable
membrane, SP. The glucose molecules in B are too large to pass across the semi-permeable
membrane, SP and enter A. Incoming water molecules cause the level of the glucose solution in
B to rise while the level of water in A drops.

Osmosis can also be demonstrated using a peeled potato. A hollow is made in a potato; the potato
is placed on a petri dish containing distilled water. Sugar crystals are placed in the hollow.
Twenty four hours later, it is found that the sugar crystals have formed a solution and that the
water level in the petri dish has decreased because water has moved to the hollow by osmosis.
Solutions
Most animal cells are isotonic with their environment. This means that the concentrations of the
salts inside the cells are equal to the concentrations of the salts in the blood or body fluids so that
there is no net flow of water in either direction. A solution whose osmotic concentration is lower
than the salt concentration of the blood or that of the body fluids is referred to as hypotonic. A
solution that has a higher osmotic concentration than that of blood or body fluids is called a
hypertonic solution.

If red blood cells are placed in a hypotonic solution, water will leave the solution by osmosis and
enter the cells. This water will accumulate in the cells until the cells burst. This is known as
hemolysis. If , on the other hand, the cells are placed in a hypertonic solution, water move from
the cells into the solution, causing the cells to shrink, condition known as crenation. However, if
the cells are placed in an isotonic solution, nothing happens to the cells because the osmotic
pressure inside the cells is the same as the osmotic pressure outside the cell.

Facilitated Diffusion
Some molecules are too big to pass through the cell membrane. In order to cross the membrane,
they attach themselves to carrier proteins on the cell membrane, which will carry them across the
membrane, just as a river ferry does when it carries people with their properties across a river.
Such carrier proteins transport their substances from a region of high concentration to a region of
low concentration. Facilitated diffusion does not require energy.

Active Transport
A cell will sometimes accumulate a certain compound at higher concentration than it is in the
surrounding medium. A liver cell, for example, will continue to pick up glucose from the blood
even when the concentration of glucose in the liver far exceeds that present in the blood.

Active transport
This is possible because the cell uses both a carrier protein and the energy provided by ATP to
pump molecules of glucose into the liver against their concentration gradient. This is an example
of active transport. Active transport is also important in nerve action, muscle contraction and
kidney function. Active transport requires energy.
Endocytosis
Large solid particles can enter the cell by phagocytosis and globular molecules such as milk fats
enter by pinocytosis. Both processes constitute endocytosis.
Phagocytosis (cellular eating) involves the ingestion of large particles by the cells. When a
macrophage or any other phagocytic cell encounters a particle such as an invading
microorganism, or dead cell debris, it sends out cytoplasmic projections around it and then
encloses it within a vesicle inside the cytoplasm. The vesicle detaches itself from the cell
membrane and becomes a food vacuole. Enzymes released by the lysosomes then break down
the engulfed food material.
Small particles, especially the fragments left over by phagocytosis, are expelled from the cells by
a process called exocytosis. This is actually the reverse of phagocytosis. The material contained
in the food vacuole or fluid vesicles is expelled through the cell membrane into the surrounding
area.

When the substance to be eaten is a liquid such as fat or protein globules, the process is called
pinocytosis (cellular drinking). In Amoeba, for example, the remains of digestion leave the cell
by exocytosis.
Study Questions
1. How is osmosis different from diffusion?

2. Define the following terms: hypotonic, isotonic and hypertonic.

3. Describe the structure of a cell membrane and show how it is suited to its function
4. Show how the structure of a cell membrane is suited to its task.