Gradients, ionic

The basal metabolic rate for adults is 1 to 1.2 Calories/minute or 60 to 72 Calories/hour. This energy powers the movement of the chest during respiration and the beating of the heart—processes that are obviously necessary for life. However, a surprisingly large fraction of the BMR is used by cells to maintain ionic gradients between their interior and the fluid that surrnunds them (the interstitial fluid nr tissue fluid). 

The electrical signals are carried by the movement of charged ions across the cell membrane. This makes use of the potential energy stored across the cell membrane in the form of ionic gradients. Concentration gradients for the principal ions across a typical nerve cell membrane are indicated in Fig. 2.1(a). The cell interior has a high concentration of K+ ions and a low concentration of Na+, Cl and Ca + ions relative to the exterior. 

NEUROTRANSMITTERS, DRUGS AND BRAIN FUNCTION (a) Ionic gradients... 

Figure 2.1 (a) Resting ionic gradients across a nerve cell membrane. Concentrations [ ] are in... 

Several other conditions can provoke this reverse pump type of release. One is when the transmembrane ionic gradient is reversed. Experimentally this is achieved by reducing extracellular Na+. Because the neuronal uptake of monoamines from the synapse by the transporter requires co-transport of Na+ and Cl , reversing the ionic gradient (so that the Na+ concentration is lower outside, than inside, the terminals) will drive the transporter in the wrong direction. Such carrier-mediated release could explain the massive Ca +-independent release of noradrenaline during ischaemia which increases intracellular Na+ concentration and reduces intracellular K+. 

Phase 4 The Na+/K+ pump restores the ionic gradients by pumping 3Na+ out of the cell in exchange for 2K+. The overall effect is, therefore, the slow loss of positive ionic charge from within the cell. 

The excitable membrane of nerve axons, like the membrane of cardiac muscle (see Chapter 14) and neuronal cell bodies (see Chapter 21), maintains a resting transmembrane potential of -90 to -60 mV. During excitation, the sodium channels open, and a fast inward sodium current quickly depolarizes the membrane toward the sodium equilibrium potential (+40 mV). As a result of this depolarization process, the sodium channels close (inactivate) and potassium channels open. The outward flow of potassium repolarizes the membrane toward the potassium equilibrium potential (about -95 mV) repolarization returns the sodium channels to the rested state with a characteristic recovery time that determines the refractory period. The transmembrane ionic gradients are maintained by the sodium pump. These ionic fluxes are similar to, but simpler than, those in heart muscle, and local anesthetics have similar effects in both tissues. 

A membrane is a semipermeable barrier whose function is to compartmentalize metabolic processes, maintain pH differences on either side, control osmotic pressure and ionic gradients, provide a surface or environment for the stabilization of active biomolecules, provide tissue discrimination, and allow selective access as well as egress to specific metabolites. 

What is the mechanism by which ATPase transporters function We still do not know.550 The pumping cycles for the Na+,K+- ATPase and the Ca2+- ATPase are similar although different in details. The ATPases are reversible and with suitable ionic gradients will work as ATP synthases.551 A strictly hypothetical model for the Na+,... 

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