September 12

Simple diffusion: molecules are moving all the time due to random thermal motion

Glucose moves slower because it’s larger

Molecules are constantly moving

Smaller molecules will generally move faster than larger molecules

- Will move down concentration gradient due to their random thermal motion
- Will continue to do that until distribute equally
- At this point, no concentration gradient, reached chemical/dynamic equilibrium (will continue to
move down concentration gradient until reach chemical or dynamic equilibrium)
- No conc gradient, no NET movement (still bouncing around) but no NET movement of our
glucose molecules
- The driving force is always the concentration gradient whenever we talk about diffusion

Blood contains oxygen, glucose, these molecules can diffuse through slits/pores in capillary, the oxygen
will diffuse out of the capillary and diffuse down its concentration gradient (partial pressure gradient)
and diffuse towards cells

High conc of glucose in capillary, it will diffuse out and move towards the cells (simple diffusion in the
body)
***SIMPLE DIFFUSION IS NOT VERY EFFICIENT OVER LONG DISTANCES

Calculate time for diffusion : x is the distance the molecule is travelling divided by the diffusion
coefficient

Time for diffusion will increase with the square of the distance

The further the molecule has to diffuse, takes much much longer

Want oxygen fairly quickly, so cell can make ATP

For long distance, not very efficient (glucose is even worse)

Generally most cells in the body are very close to blood vessels (in general)

If athlete, want to decrease the diffusion distance

Can the human body change the diffusion distsance? If so how? – grow more cells in certain areas
(maybe not), dilate the blood vessels, create more vessels,

Exercise can cause angiogenesis (development of new blood vessels) – more blood vessels through
tissue bed means more cells closer

Diffusion through cell membrane (how are they going to get into the cell)

- Those substances must be non polar (lipid soluble) in order to penetrate the lipid (fatty acid tail)
region of the lipid bilayer
- Fatty acid tail barrier: substances have to be lipid soluble (non polar molecules)
 - The driving force is still the concentration gradient
- Molecule, under random thermal motion, will diffuse through cell memembrane until reach
electrochemical equilibrium
- Rate of diffusion can be predicted by Fick’s First Law of Diffusion

Fick’s First Law of Diffusion

- Dc/dx (c= concentration difference, x = distance)

- Why is there a negative sign before the kT: the slope of the concentration gradient is always
negative (high concentration to low concentration)

Polar molecules cannot diffuse directly through the cell membrane due to the hydrophobic fatty acid
region: - require protein chanel/pore (leak channel) – holes lined with proteins, driving force is sitill
concentration gradient

Ions being polar, have a water shell

Factors affecting the rate of diffusion through protein channel

- size of molecule: protein pores are generally smaller than 0.8 nm

- charge on the molecule and channel (because the protein channel has charge on it, will affect
rate of movement of molecules)
- electrochemical gradient (high conc gradient will push molecule through membrane very
quickly, also electrical gradients)
- pressure gradient (more pressure outside imparting greater ke on molecule, move more rapidly,
faster rate of diffusion)
- hydration energy (water shell) – these are polar molecules and polar molecules attract water, in
order to fit through the pore, the water shell has to be removed by the channel so that the ion
can pass through it and remain energetically stable

Na+ has large watershell, so acting like a larger molecule (potassium’s will be much smaller water shell)

- if sodium came to potassium channel, cannot strip off the water shell
- water shell must be removed byt hes pecific channel (na+ channel can only strip off water shell
of na+)

Some of these factors acta s ‘filters’ preventing one ion from passing through another ion’s channel –
this is NOT chemical specificity (that requires binding directly to protein)

- the ions moving through the protein channel does not require the ion to bind directly to the
protein
- so NOT chemical specificity

membrane permeability:

- chloride is most permeable, Na+ is least permeable; not permeable to sodium, quite permeable
to potassium, more permeable to chloride

Facilitated diffusion; large molecules greater than 0.8 nm – binding to an intergral membrane protein ---
***BINDING*** causing the proteins to change shape, conformational change in that protein moving
the molecule across the membrane – when the protein changes shape, it shuttles the molecule across
the membrane – this is still powered by the concentration gradient, but called a carrier mediated
transport (protein is carrying the molecule across the membrane)

- chemical specificity
- can be competitively inhibited by molecules that are structurally similar to the one that should
be carried
-