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Membrane Transport of Small
Molecules and the Electrical Properties of Membranes 11
Because of its hydrophobic interior, the lipid bilayer of cell membranes restricts the passage of most polar molecules. This barrier function allows the cell to maintain concentrations of solutes in its cytosol that differ from those in the extracellular fluid and in each of the intracellular membrane-enclosed compartments. To benefit from this barrier, however, cells have had to evolve ways of transferring specific water-soluble molecules and ions across their membranes in order to ingest essential nutrients, excrete metabolic waste products, and regulate intracellular ion concentrations. Cells use specialized membrane transport proteins to accomplish this goal. The importance of such small molecule transport is reflected in the large number of genes in all organisms that code for the transmembrane transport proteins involved, which make up 15–30% of the membrane proteins in all cells. Some mammalian cells, such as nerve and kidney cells, devote up to two-thirds of their total metabolic energy consumption to such transport processes.