Biological membranes formation

C. Tanford. The Hydrophobic Effect Formation of Micelles and Biological Membranes. New York Wiley, 1980. 

Tanford C. The hydrophobic effect formation of micelles and biological membranes. New York John Wiley Sons, 1980. 

Although for the moment this model is only partially supported by experimental data it offers the opportunity to design new experiments which will help to understand the mechanisms of pardaxin insertion and pore formation in lipid bilayers and biological membranes which at a molecular level are the events leading to shark repellency and toxicity of this marine toxin. 

The search for models of biological membranes led to the formation of a separate branch of electrochemistry, i.e. membrane electrochemistry. The most important results obtained in this field include the theory and application of ion-exchanger membranes and the discovery of ion-selective electrodes (including glass electrodes) and bilayer lipid membranes. 

The conformation of gramicidin in aqueous solution has been extensively studied. A lipophilic left-handed helical structure has been proposed for gramicidin A 0 1 1. it was proposed that the mode of action of gramicidin is due to the formation of ion transport channels across biological membranes. 

Ion pairs are outer-sphere association complexes, which have to be clearly distinguished from the organometallic complexes discussed in Section 6. Ion pair formation appears to be much less important in biological membranes as compared with octanol, because the charge of the ions at the membrane interphase can be balanced by counter charge in the electrolyte in the adjacent aqueous phase. The reactions involved in ion pair formation are depicted in Figures 5b for acids and 5c for bases, and the equilibrium constant K ix is defined as follows ... 

Indirect evidence of hydrophobic complex formation in biological membranes is also given by the modulation of the toxicity of catechol and chlor-ocatechol by Cu2+ [78], Whereas toxicity of higher chlorocatechols was decreased by the addition of Cu2+, it was increased in the case of catechol and monochlorocatechol. Tentative models to explain these findings include complex formation between mono-and di-deprotonated catechols and Cu2+, both in the aqueous and in the membrane phase. 

Biological membranes consist of a bilayer of phospholipids in which membrane proteins are either embedded (integral proteins) or simply adsorbed (boundary proteins) (1) (Figure 1.). These systems fulfill a variety of functions oT basic importance. One of the most significant is the compartimentation via the formation of cells and cell subunits based on the self organization of membranes (hydrophobic effect (2j). 

The serious drawback of the methods of evaluation of fluidity based on intermolecular quenching or excimer formation is that the translational diffusion can be perturbed in constrained media. It should be emphasized that, in the case of biological membranes, problems in the estimation of fluidity arise from the presence of proteins and possible additives (e.g. cholesterol). Nevertheless, excimer formation with pyrene or pyrene-labeled phospholipids can provide interesting in-... 

Hubbell, W.L., 1990, Transbhayer couphng mechanism for the formation ofhpid asymmetry in biological membranes. Application to the photoreceptor disc membrane. Biophys. J. 57 ... 

In 1848 du Bois-Reymond [21] suggested that the surfaces of biological formations have a property similar to the electrode of a galvanic cell and that this is the source of bioelectric phenomena observed in damaged tissues. The properties of biological membranes could not, however, be explained before at least the basic electrochemistry of simple models was formulated. The thermodynamic relationships for membrane equilibria were derived by Gibbs in 1875 [29], but because the theory of electrolyte solutions was formulated first by Arrhenius as late as 1887, Gibbs does not mention either ions or electric potentials. 

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