The activities of specific transport systems were determined before and after large portions of the surface membrane had been interiorized by phagocytosis of inert particles. In five separate transport systems in rabbit polymorphonuclear leukocytes (adenosine and two adenine transport systems) and alveolar macrophages (adenosine and lysine transport systems), the rate of transport was unaffected even after an estimated 35–50% of the membrane had been internalized. Studies of the kinetics of lysine and adenosine transport, exchange diffusion of lysine transport in alveolar macrophages, and the specificities of adenine transport in polymorphonuclear leukocytes indicate that the nature of the membrane transport systems is not altered by phagocytosis. Therefore the constancy of transport indicates that the number of carriers remains the same before and after phagocytosis. It was also shown that this constancy of transport did not depend on the introduction into the surface of new transport sites during phagocytosis. Therefore transport sites are preserved on the surface during the internalization of membrane which accompanies phagocytosis. The results are best explained by the concept that the membrane is mosaic in character with geographically separate transport and phagocytic sites.
Article|
October 01 1971
EFFECT OF PHAGOCYTOSIS ON MEMBRANE TRANSPORT OF NONELECTROLYTES
Min-Fu Tsan,
Min-Fu Tsan
From the Department of Physiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
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Richard D. Berlin
Richard D. Berlin
From the Department of Physiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
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Min-Fu Tsan
From the Department of Physiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Richard D. Berlin
From the Department of Physiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115
Received:
June 03 1971
Online ISSN: 1540-9538
Print ISSN: 0022-1007
Copyright © 1971 by The Rockefeller University Press
1971
J Exp Med (1971) 134 (4): 1016–1035.
Article history
Received:
June 03 1971
Citation
Min-Fu Tsan, Richard D. Berlin; EFFECT OF PHAGOCYTOSIS ON MEMBRANE TRANSPORT OF NONELECTROLYTES . J Exp Med 1 October 1971; 134 (4): 1016–1035. doi: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.134.4.1016
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