Fernandez, Carla Mae O.

September 26, 2017

BSBiotech-3 Biol132 Lab (T 1:00-4:00)

Article Critique
McLaughlin, S., & Poo, M. M. (1981). The role of electro-osmosis in the electric-field-induced movement
of charged macromolecules on the surfaces of cells. Biophysical journal, 34(1), 85-93.

The article The role of electro-osmosis in the electric-field-induced movement of charged

macromolecules on the surfaces of cells, by Stuart McLaughlin and Mu-ming Poo seeks on how charged
macromolecules can freely move laterally in the plasma membrane by the occurrence of an electro-
osmotic flow of fluid parallel to the surface of the membrane. They suggested that an electro-osmotic
flow of fluid occurs which exerts a hydrodynamic force on the mobile macromolecules, and this
force causes even negatively charged macromolecules to accumulate at the negative side of the
muscle cell. (p. 85) Specifically, their analysis in this experimental study predicts that a mobile,
negatively charged macromolecule will move to the positive side of the cell only if the zeta
potential of the macromolecule is more negative than the zeta potential of the cell surface. If the
zeta potential of the macromolecule is less negative than the zeta potential of the cell surface, the
macromolecule will be swept to the negative side of the cell by an electro-osmotic flow of fluid.
(p. 86)
The hypotheses in this experiment are that electro-osmosis plays a significant role in the
redistribution of Con A receptors in embryonic Xenopus muscle cells (p. 90), that a decrease in
the electro-osmotic flow allows Con A receptors to move electrophoretically towards the anode
(p. 92), and the electro-osmotic flow of fluid toward the cathode will be enhanced if the negativity
of the cell surface is increased (p. 92). These were examined by performing several experiments
designed to modify the charge density and zeta potential of the cell surface such as the treatment
of neuraminidase and incorporation of charged lipids. These methods used produced data which
achieved the goal of the experiment which is to induce accumulation of the concanavalin A (Con A)
receptors on embryonic muscle cells to the anodal side of the cell instead of the normal accumulation at the
cathodal side of the cell.
The experimental results however are consistent to the hypotheses mentioned, except to
that the electro-osmosis could play a significant role in the field-induced movement of
macromolecules. The strength in their study is that they have other supportive details such as they
also studied the ability of the Eq. 3, the classic electro-osmosis equation, to describe the flow of
fluid adjacent to a phospholipid bilayer. (p. 92) On the other hand, the weakness in their study is
that they have greatly simplified the situation at the cell surface by assuming that the charged
portion of the mobile protein extends beyond and does not interact with the charged surface of
the membrane. Though in reality, the charged mobile receptors probably exist among the other
proteins and glycoproteins that contribute to the surface charge. Furthermore, they have just
ignored in their model the effects of a field-induced redistribution of charged groups. And instead
of analyzing more realistic models, they only depended on the complementary experiments with
reconstituted systems and living cells which would provide a better understanding of the role of
electro-osmosis in the field-induced movement of macromolecules on the surface of cells and
organelles.
Overall this article is very straightforward from the beginning and you could clearly
identify its goal and its purpose. Though there are limitations in this study, their experimental
results still could support their hypotheses and reach their expectations in this study. This study
is highly relevant especially that electrophoresis and/or electro-osmosis is widely used in
studies regarding cells in both plant and industrial applications nowadays.