Facilitated diffusion, across membranes

Lipophilicity. Lipophilicity of a radiotracer facilitates diffusion across membranes, particularly passing the blood-brain barrier, which is required for brain uptake. 

In addition to these two cases, other very different situations can also be diffusion-controlled. Two more examples are the case of facilitated diffusion across membranes and that of reactions controlled by Brownian motion. In the facihtated-diffusion case, shown schematically in Fig. 16.2-1 (c), one solute quickly reacts with a second carrier solute to form a complex this complex then diffuses across the membrane. The overall transport rate is governed by complex diffusion weighted by the equilibrium constant for complex formation. This case is discussed in Section 18.5. 

Aniline is therefore not absorbed under these conditions (Fig. 3.14). Furthermore, the ionization in the plasma does not facilitate diffusion across the membrane, and with some bases, secretion from the plasma back into the stomach may take place. The situation in the small intestine, where the pH is around 6, is the reverse, as shown in Figure 3.15. 

The transport proteins of natural membranes are integral membrane proteins that completely span the lipid bilayer. The hydrophilic channels of these proteins are created by an arrangement of amino acid chains that opens the channels and lines their sides with polar groups. The channels may be formed by a polar opening through a single protein or by several proteins that combine to form a channel between them. There are several types of transporters that facilitate diffusion across biological membranes. One type... 

Another form of facilitated diffusion involves membrane proteins called carriers (sometimes referred to as passive transporters). In carrier-mediated transport, a specific solute binds to the carrier on one side of a membrane and causes a conformational change in the carrier. The solute is then translocated across the membrane and released. The red blood cell glucose transporter is the best-characterized example of passive transporters. It allows D-glucose to diffuse across the red blood cell membrane for use in glycolysis and the pentose phosphate pathway. Facilitated diffusion increases the rate at which certain solutes move down their concentration gradients. This process cannot cause a net increase in solute concentration on one side of the membrane. 

Example 1.3-6 Facilitated transport across membranes Some membranes contain a mobile carrier, a reactive species that reacts with diffusing solutes, facilitating their transport across the membrane. Such membranes can be used to concentrate copper ions from industrial waste and to remove carbon dioxide from coal gas. Diffusion across these membranes does not vary linearly with the concentration difference across them. The diffusion can be highly selective, but it is often easily poisoned. Should this diffusion be described with mass transfer coefficients or with diffusion coefficients ... 

All of the transport systems examined thus far are relatively large proteins. Several small molecule toxins produced by microorganisms facilitate ion transport across membranes. Due to their relative simplicity, these molecules, the lonophore antibiotics, represent paradigms of the mobile carrier and pore or charmel models for membrane transport. Mobile carriers are molecules that form complexes with particular ions and diffuse freely across a lipid membrane (Figure 10.38). Pores or channels, on the other hand, adopt a fixed orientation in a membrane, creating a hole that permits the transmembrane movement of ions. These pores or channels may be formed from monomeric or (more often) multimeric structures in the membrane. 

The passage of a small and/or highly lipophilic molecule through the membrane phospholipid bilayer according to the gradient of its concentrations across the plasma membrane. It is slower than facilitated diffusion, which, however, also follows the gradient of solute concentrations across the membrane. 

Some specific solutes diffuse down electrochemical gradients across membranes more rapidly than might be expected from their size, charge, or partition coefficients. This facilitated diffusion exhibits properties distinct from those of simple diffusion. The rate of facilitated diffusion, a uniport system, can be saturated ie, the number of sites involved in diffusion of the specific solutes appears finite. Many facihtated diffusion systems are stereospecific but, fike simple diffusion, require no metabolic energy. 

As described earlier, the inside-outside asymmetry of membrane proteins is stable, and mobifity of proteins across (rather than in) the membrane is rare therefore, transverse mobility of specific carrier proteins is not likely to account for facilitated diffusion processes except in a few unusual cases. 

Unphosphorylated functioning according to Fig. 5 catalyzes facilitated diffusion of mannitol across the membrane. The same process has been reported for purified II reconstituted in proteoliposomes [70]. The relevance of this activity in terms of transport of mannitol into the bacterial cell is probably low, but it may have important implications for the mechanism by which E-IIs catalyze vectorial phosphorylation. It would indicate that the transmembrane C domain of Il is a mannitol translocating unit which is somehow coupled to the kinase activity of the cytoplasmic domains. We propose that the inwardly oriented binding site which is in contact with the internal water phase (Ecyt Mtl, see Fig. 5) is the site from where mannitol is phosphorylated when transport is coupled to phosphorylation. Meehan-... 

Facilitated Diffusion. Temporary combination of the chemical with some form of carrier occurs in the gut wall, facilitating the transfer of the toxicant across the membranes. This process is also dependent on the concentration gradient across the membrane, and there is no energy utilization in making the translocation. In some intoxications, the carrier may become saturated, making this the rate-limiting step in the absorption process. 

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... 

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