A model for enhanced and selective transport through biological membranes with alternating pores

Abstract

We investigate the outflux of ions through the channels in a cell membrane. The channels undergo an open/close cycle according to a periodic schedule. Our study is based both on theoretical considerations relying on homogenization theory, and on Monte Carlo numerical simulations. We examine the onset of a limiting boundary behavior characterized by a constant ratio between the outflux and the local density, in the thermodynamics limit. The focus here is on the issue of selectivity, that is on the different behavior of the ion currents through the channel in the cases of the selected and non-selected species.

arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1307.4180

References in corpus (5)

• Dynamics of pedestrians in regions with no visibility - a lattice model without exclusion
• Fick's law and Fokker-Planck Equation in inhomogeneous environments
• Can cooperation slow down emergency evacuations?
• Monte Carlo study of gating and selection in potassium channels
• Effect of intracellular diffusion on current-voltage curves in potassium channels