Pumping cells with different diffusion

Fig. 3 Pumping cells with different diffusion barriers (a)...

The Sartorius Absorption Model (26), which served as the forerunner to the BCS, simulates concomitant release from the dosage form in the GI tract and absorption of the drug through the lipid barrier. The most important features of Sartorius Absorption Model are the two reservoirs for holding different media at 37°C, a diffusion cell with an artificial lipid barrier of known surface area, and a connecting peristaltic pump which aids the transport of the solution or the media from the reservoir to the compartment of the diffusion cell. The set-up is shown in Figures 7a and b. 

The water content in hydrogen exhaust is equal to water brought into the cell with hydrogen inlet minus the net water transport across the membrane. As discussed in Chapter 3, water gets "pumped" from anode to cathode because of electroosmotic drag. At the same time, some water diffuses back because of water concentration gradient and because of pressure differential. The net water transport is then the difference between these two fluxes. 

In real cells, multiple transmembrane pumps and channels maintain and regulate the transmembrane potential. Furthermore, those processes are at best only in a quasi-steady state, not truly at equilibrium. Thus, electrophoresis of an ionic solute across a membrane may be a passive equilibrative diffusion process in itself, but is effectively an active and concentra-tive process when the cell is considered as a whole. Other factors that influence transport across membranes include pH gradients, differences in binding, and coupled reactions that convert the transported substrate into another chemical form. In each case, transport is governed by the concentration of free and permeable substrate available in each compartment. The effect of pH on transport will depend on whether the permeant species is the protonated form (e.g., acids) or the unprotonated form (e.g., bases), on the pfQ of the compound, and on the pH in each compartment. The effects can be predicted with reference to the Henderson-Hasselbach equation (Equation 14.2), which states that the ratio of acid and base forms changes by a factor of 10 for each unit change in either pH or pfCt ... 

Gibbs-Donnan equilibrium determines the concentration difference across simple membranes made of polymers, porous ceramic media, and other ultrafiltration devices. However, the difference of ion concentrations across the membranes of living cells and nerves is more complicated because of the existence of ion pumps as a result of carrier-mediated or facilitated diffusion, so that the concentrations of some ions are not in thermodynamic equilibrium. For example, there is a much higher sodium con- centration outside cells than there is inside, while the reverse is true for potassium ions. This occurs because there is a carrier (probably a lipoprotein) that binds with a sodium ion inside the cell, transports the ion across membrane, and then releases it into the fluid outside the cell. The carrier is then transformed and binds with a potassium ion, which is then transported into the cell. This mechanism is discussed in courses... 

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