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Principles of Water and Nonelectrolyte Transport across Membranes

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Membrane Physiology

Abstract

Classical deductions concerning the manner in which water and nonelectrolytes traverse biological membranes have their origin in the observations of Overton(1) and Collander and Bärlund.(2) Overton formulated the generalization that the rate of penetration of nonelectrolytes into plant cells was proportional to their oil-water partition coefficient. Collander and Bärlund(2) confirmed these observations but noted that, in certain instances, the cellular permeability of solutes was related primarily to molecular size rather than lipid solubility. These two dissimilar phenomena led to the hypothesis that natural membranes were mosaic structures containing lipids and pores, or molecular sieves. The degree to which molecular size, rather than lipid solubility, regulated the penetration of solutes into cells was dependent on the fractional membrane area occupied by pores and the characteristics of the individual pores.(3) Current theories concerning membrane pores depend, in the main, on this hypothesis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, and Department of Physiology and Biophysics, University of Alabama School of Medicine, Birmingham, Alabama, 35294, USA

    Thomas E. Andreoli & James A. Schafer

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  1. Thomas E. Andreoli
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  2. James A. Schafer
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, 77025, Houston, TX, USA

    Thomas E. Andreoli M.D. (Professor and Chairman) (Professor and Chairman)

  2. Department of Physiology, Yale University School of Medicine, 06510, New Haven, CT, USA

    Joseph F. Hoffman Ph.D. (Eugene Higgins Professor and Chairman) (Eugene Higgins Professor and Chairman)

  3. Division of Nephrology, University of California, San Diego, 92037, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Darrell D. Fanestil M.D. (Professor of Medicine, and Head) (Professor of Medicine, and Head)

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Andreoli, T.E., Schafer, J.A. (1980). Principles of Water and Nonelectrolyte Transport across Membranes. In: Andreoli, T.E., Hoffman, J.F., Fanestil, D.D. (eds) Membrane Physiology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1718-1_9

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