第5章細胞膜の構造と機能

The cell harvests energy from ATP produced by its own metabolism to power active transport processes, such as the activity of pumps.

The sodium-potassium pump forces out three (positive) Na⁺ ions for every two (positive) K⁺ ions it pumps in, thus the cell loses a positive charge at every cycle of the pump.

Intestinal epithelial cells use active transport to fulfill their specific role as the cells that transfer glucose from the digested food to the bloodstream. Intestinal cells are exposed to an environment with fluctuating glucose levels. Immediately after eating, glucose in the gut lumen will be high, and could accumulate in intestinal cells by diffusion. However, when the gut lumen is empty, glucose levels are higher in the intestinal cells. If glucose moved by facilitated diffusion, this would cause glucose to flow back out of the intestinal cells and into the gut. Active transport proteins ensure that glucose moves into the intestinal cells, and cannot move back into the gut. It also ensures that glucose transport continues to occur even if high levels of glucose are already present in the intestinal cells. This maximizes the amount of energy the body can harvest from food.

The NCX moves sodium down its electrochemical gradient into the cell. Since sodium’s electrochemical gradient is created by the Na+/K+ pump, a transport pump that requires ATP hydrolysis to establish the gradient, the NCX is a secondary active transport process.