Main description:

Molecular transport of substances in the presence or absence of membranes is an ubiquitous phenomenon. Research workers from various disciplines in the biological and phys- ical sciences are actively pursuing problems of transport. One of the important questions arising in numerous biological transport situations concerns the differentiation between passive and active transport. The latter is a more complex phenomenon involving metabolic processes, and the economy of thinking requires that attempts to explain any transport pro- cess from passive mechanisms should be carried as far as pos- sible before invoking more complex mechanisms. A precise de- finition and circumscription of passive transport processes is of crucial importance. The symposium on "Passive permea- bility of cell membranes" was therefore devoted to these pas- sive transport processes and this book presents the proceed- ings of the conference. This symposium, a satellite symposium of the XXV Inter- national Congress of Physiological Sciences at Munich, Ger- many, on July 25-31, 1971, was organized by the Department of Physiology, University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Nether- lands.
It was held at the Hilton Hotel in Rotterdam on July 20-22, 1971. The meeting was made possible by generous fi- nancial support from the Dutch Ministry of Education and Science (Ministerie van Onderwijs en Wetenschappenl and from Boehringer Mannheim N. V. , Ciba N. V. , Essex (Nederland) N. V. , Gist-Brocades N. V. , Hoffmann - La Roche N. V. , Merck, Sharp and Dohme Nederland N. V. , N. V. Philips, and Unilever N.

Contents:

Diffusion. Basic Phenomena and Mechanism.- Diffusion, Chemical Reaction and Facilitated Diffusion.- Asymmetry in Biological Permeability Barriers with Carrier Transport.- Carrier Diffusion.- Aspects of Competitive Inhibition.- A New Kinetic Analysis of the Leucine Transport Carrier in Erythrocytes.- An Alternative to the Carrier Model for Sugar Transport across Red Cell Membranes.- Single-File Diffusion.- Carrier Mediated Diffusion across Thin Membranes (Abstract).- Lipids of the Cell Plasma Membrane.- The Isolation of Erythrocyte Membrane Proteins in Aqueous Media.- Lipid Binding of Membrane Proteins.- Phase Transitions in Lipids.- Immunological Aspects of Cation Transport in Sheep Red Cells.- The L Antibody and Potassium Fluxes in LK Red Cells of Sheep and Goats.- Fluorescent Probes in Membrane Studies.- Motion of Spin Labeled Fatty Acids in Membrane Structures.- Recent Studies Using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of Lipids and Biological Membranes.- Electrical Noise from Synthetic Membranes.- Properties of Water in Red Cell and Synthetic Membranes.- Properties of Water Channels in Human Red Cells.- The Modification of Water Structure by Divalent Cations as a Mechanism of Membrane Permeability Control.- Surface Coating and Transport.- Membrane Lipid Pattern and Non-Electrolytes Permeability in Salmo Trutta L. Red Blood Cells.- Mechanisms of Anion Permeation A review of available data, principally on muscle cells, with the fixed charge concept in mind.- Passive Anion Transfer across the Red Cell Membrane and its Alteration by Amphiphilic Compounds.- Chemical Modification of Proteins Involved in the Permeability of the Erythrocyte Membrane to Ions.- Modified Erythrocyte Cation Permeability.- Conductance Mechanisms in Excitable Cells.- Simulation of Membrane Properties.- Membrane Noise and Ion Transport in the Node of Ranvier.- Delayed Voltage Responses to Fast Changes of (Na)o at the Outer Surface of Frog Skin Epithelium.- Allostery and Permeability of Postsynaptic Membranes.