Active versus passive transport

Carrier-mediated passage of a molecular entity across a membrane (or other barrier). Facilitated transport follows saturation kinetics ie, the rate of transport at elevated concentrations of the transportable substrate reaches a maximum that reflects the concentration of carriers/transporters. In this respect, the kinetics resemble the Michaelis-Menten behavior of enzyme-catalyzed reactions. Facilitated diffusion systems are often stereo-specific, and they are subject to competitive inhibition. Facilitated transport systems are also distinguished from active transport systems which work against a concentration barrier and require a source of free energy. Simple diffusion often occurs in parallel to facilitated diffusion, and one must correct facilitated transport for the basal rate. This is usually evident when a plot of transport rate versus substrate concentration reaches a limiting nonzero rate at saturating substrate While the term passive transport has been used synonymously with facilitated transport, others have suggested that this term may be confused with or mistaken for simple diffusion. See Membrane Transport Kinetics... 

The model simulations were in close agreement with the observed results from the distribution and metabolism studies. Physiological processes that were highlighted by the results and the discrepancies that did occur include the probable active transport into the brain (versus passive diffusion) of a methyl-mercury-cysteine complex, the bidirectional transport of methylmercury between the gut lumen and gut tissue as a more important determinant of methylmercury fecal excretion than biliary secretion, the importance for the determination of methylmercury half-life in rats of the recycling of mercury from ingested hair, and the need for better estimates of the rate constants for the demethylation of methylmercury in order to adapt the model to other species. 

See also Thermodynamics of Transport Across Membranes, Passive Versus Active Transport, Transport Mechanisms, Sodium-Potassium Pump... 

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