The Living Barrier

The Living Barrier: A Primer on Transfer across Biological Membranes provides information pertinent to the movement of molecules across cell membranes. This book covers a variety of topics, including cell membrane, membrane transfer, water transfer, and movement of charged solutes.

Organized into nine chapters, this book begins with an overview of the basic ideas of the cell membrane and reviews the experimental evidence about the structure of the cell membrane. This text then reviews the classical electron microscope pictures of membranes. Other chapters consider the interactions between electrical potentials and the movements of charged substances, which make the membrane transfer of these substances much more complicated than those of neutral molecules. This book discusses as well the aspects of water structure and its influence on membrane permeability. The final chapter deals with the methods by which membranes are synthesized.

This book is a valuable resource for biochemists, physiologists, pharmacologists, and botanists.

Acknowledgements

Foreword

Chapter 1 The Discovery of the Cell

Chapter 2 The Cell Membrane Concept

Chapter 3 The Paucimolecular Membrane Model

Chapter 4 Chemical and Ultrastructural Studies of Cell Membranes

Chapter 5 The Movement of Molecules Across Cell Membranes

Chapter 6 Experimental Methods and Criteria for Characterizing Membrane Transfer

Chapter 7 The Movement of Charged Solutes

Chapter 8 Water Transfer

Chapter 9 Looking Through a Glass Darkly

Bibliography

Index