Transport and Diffusion Across Cell Membranes

In the preface the author tells us the book deals with molecular and kinetic aspects of the movement of molecules and ions across cell membranes, that he wants to show that the same kinetic equations, appropriately modified, serve to describe all of the various transport systems, and that the exposition is databased. The material is organized into six chapters. Chapter 1, "Physical Basis of Movement Across Cell Membranes", discusses structure and physical chemistry of the cell membrane and then introduces thermodynamics and kinetics and the methods of measurement of membrane permeability. The central section on thermodynamics and kinetics is a short introductory treatment and could well be deeper for a graduate level book. Chapter 2, "Simple Diffusion Across the Membrane Bilayer", gives a good, physically intuitive and data-based discussion of the effects of partition coefficient and molecular volume on permeability. The order of the argument in Section 2.1 seems to be inverted in that the author starts with a plot of log P vs log Khoxade~a,e (Fig. 2.1) in which he fits a straight line to a set of points that obviously do not fit a straight line, without motivation. The motivation appears two pages later in the derivation of the relation P=KDmem/2. Chapter 3, "Channels Across the Cell Membrane", starts with data on single channel conductances, discusses channels for different substrates, gives a uniform kinetic treatment for 1-site, 2-site and multisite channels, and covers channel specificity and regulation of channel opening. Chapter 4, "Facilitated Diffusion: The Simple Carrier", starts with the experimental definition of facilitated diffusion and the kinetic treatment of the simple carrier model and proceeds to a discussion of a series of systems, interpretation of transport parameters, counter-flow, different types of inhibition, and a comparison of properties of carriers and enzymes and the question whether the conformational shifts of the carrier or the substrate-carrier dissociation steps are rate limiting. Chapter 5, "The Cosubstrate Systems: Two Substrates That are Carried on a Single Transporter", is concerned with the cotransport systems and the nature of gradient-coupling, the question of effective design for tight