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Proteins show rotational as well as lateral diffusion across the membrane. The lateral diffusion of proteins was confirmed through the cell fusion experiment where mouse and human cells were fused, resulting in hybrid cells. When the human and mouse cells fused, the specific membrane proteins on human and mouse cells were marked with the red and green-fluorescent markers, respectively. Initially, the red and green fluorescence was located on the respective hemisphere of the cell. As time...
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Diffusion is the passive movement of substances down their concentration gradients—requiring no expenditure of cellular energy. Substances, such as molecules or ions, diffuse from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration in the cytosol or across membranes. Eventually, the concentration will even out, with the substance moving randomly but causing no net change in concentration. Such a state is called dynamic equilibrium, which is essential for maintaining overall...
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Diffusion is a type of passive transport. In passive transport, a substance tends to move from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration until the concentration is equal across the space. For example, take the diffusion of substances through the air. When someone opens a perfume bottle in a room filled with people, the perfume is at its highest concentration in the bottle and is at its lowest at the edges of the room. The perfume vapor will diffuse, or spread away, from the...
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Passive diffusion is a critical process that allows small lipophilic drugs to cross the cell membrane along a concentration gradient. This mechanism's efficiency depends on four primary factors: the membrane's surface area, the drug's lipid-water partition coefficient, the concentration gradient, and the membrane's thickness.
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From Fast Fluorescence Imaging to Molecular Diffusion Law on Live Cell Membranes in a Commercial Microscope
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Lateral diffusion in a discrete fluid membrane with immobile particles.

Ziya Kalay1, Takahiro K Fujiwara1, Akihisa Otaka2

  • 1Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences (WPI-iCeMS), Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8501, Japan.

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics
|October 30, 2014
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Summary

Immobile membrane molecules significantly reduce the diffusion of mobile ones. Our simulations suggest that even a small fraction of immobile particles can explain the slow diffusion observed in cell membranes.

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Area of Science:

  • Biophysics
  • Cell Biology
  • Computational Biology

Background:

  • Plasma membrane molecules can be immobilized by the actin cytoskeleton.
  • This immobilization affects the diffusion of other mobile membrane molecules.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate how immobile membrane molecules impact the diffusion of mobile ones.
  • To model cell membranes as 2D fluids and simulate molecular dynamics.

Main Methods:

  • Event-driven molecular dynamics simulations of a 2D fluid of hard particles.
  • Varying the fraction of immobile particles to observe diffusion changes.
  • Analyzing particle escape times from corrals formed by immobile particles.

Main Results:

  • Diffusion coefficient sharply decreases with increasing immobile fraction (e.g., ~3x drop with 10% immobile particles).
  • A reduction of ~22% immobile particles can account for ~20x slower diffusion in live cell membranes.
  • Mean escape time from corrals grows exponentially with obstacle density and proportionally to corral area.

Conclusions:

  • Immobile membrane particles play a crucial role in regulating molecular diffusion.
  • Findings help interpret single-molecule observations and particle-based simulations of membrane transport.