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Flow and Diffusion Through Biological Membranes

  • Chapter
Membrane Transport

Part of the book series: People and Ideas ((PEOPL))

Abstract

The centennial of the American Physiological Society coincides with the 100th anniversary of the publication of Jacobus van’t Hoff’s theorem relating the osmotic pressure of solutions to the gas laws (69). It is fitting to call attention to this coincidence of anniversaries in a volume devoted to the people and ideas of membrane-transport research because van’t Hoff’s brilliant generalization provided the theoretical basis for innumerable subsequent papers on the osmotic behavior and permeability of biological membranes. This chapter is no exception: it is concerned largely with the application of van’t Hoff’s theorem to fluid movement and effective osmotic pressures across organized biological membranes such as capillary endothelium, glomerular membranes, or leaky epithelia. It is also a personal account of my contributions to this field from 1946 to 1954, including the people who influenced my thinking and the twists of fortune that shaped the course of my research. Ideas generated during this period have since been modified, expanded, and supplemented by new methods and new concepts, including the development of irreversible thermodynamics as applied to membrane transport (23). The recent American Physiological Society Handbook of Physiology volume Microcirculation (54b) is gratifying testimony to the advances that have been made during the last thirty years. Nevertheless many features of the 1946–1954 era remain unchanged, and my purpose, indeed my charge, in this chapter is to provide a personal account of how these earlier ideas came about. I mention only a few of the subsequent advances that pertain most directly to the original concepts.

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  1. John R. Pappenheimer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Daniel C. Tosteson (Dean) (Dean)

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© 1989 American Physiological Society

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Pappenheimer, J.R. (1989). Flow and Diffusion Through Biological Membranes. In: Tosteson, D.C. (eds) Membrane Transport. People and Ideas. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7516-3_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7516-3_15

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