Medical Biology
Learning objectives
At the end of lecture student should be able to
• Describe the structure of cell membrane
• Explain molecular basis of cell membrane
• Name different types of membrane protein
• Correlate functions with structure of membrane
A cell is the smallest unit that is
capable of performing life functions.
Examples of Cells
Amoeba Proteus
Plant Stem
Bacteria
Red Blood Cell
Nerve Cell
Two Types of Cells
•Prokaryotic
•Eukaryotic
What is the difference between
prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells
• Differences between prokaryotes and
eukaryotes as organisms exist and would be
considered as well as their differences at the
cellular level (that is, the differences between
prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells at the level of
the cell).
Difference between prokaryotes and
eukaryotes organisms
• Prokaryotes lack nucleus while eukaryotes have
nuclei surrounded by nuclear membrane
• Prokaryotes dont have organelles while
Eukaryotes have membrane bound organelles
• Prokaryotes are mainly single-celled organisms
while Eukaryotes may be single-celled organisms
or multicellular organisms
• Prokaryotes examples include bacteria,
cyanobacteria and archaea while Eukaryotes
examples include plant cells, animal cells, and
fungi
Similarities between Prokaryotes and
Eukaryotes
• Both Prokaryotic and Eukaryotic cells have cell
membranes
• Prokaryotes and Eukaryotes store genetic
information in DNA
• Prokaryotic cells and some Eukaryotic cells have
cell walls
• Both prokaryotes and eukaryotes have ribosomes
involved in the production of proteins
• Both have cytoplasm
Cell Membrane (CM)
CM; crucial to the life of the cell
• CM; is the boundary that separates the living cell
from its surroundings
• CM; encloses the cell
– defines its boundaries
– maintains the essential differences between the
cytosol and the extracellular environment.
• The plasma membrane exhibits
selective permeability
allowing some substances to cross it more easily
than others..
Membrane ; -enclosed
organelles maintain the
characteristic differences
between the contents of
each organelle and the
cytosol.
• Ion gradients across
membranes, established by
the activities of specialized
membrane proteins, can
be used to synthesize ATP,
• to drive the transport of
selected solutes across
the membrane,
• as in nerve and muscle
cells, to produce and
transmit electrical signals.
Despite their differing functions,
all biological membranes have a
common
general structure
A three-dimensional schematic view of
a cell membrane
Dynamic, fluid structures
An electron
micrograph of a segment of the plasma membrane of a
human red blood cell seen in cross section, showing its
bilayer
structure.
each is a very thin film of lipid and
protein molecules, held
together mainly by noncovalent
interactions
• This lipid bilayer provides the basic fluid
structure of the membrane and serves as a
relatively impermeable barrier to the passage
of most water-soluble molecules.
• Most membrane proteins span the lipid
bilayer and mediate nearly all of the other
functions of the membrane, including the
transport of specific molecules across it, and
the catalysis of membrane-associated
reactions such as ATP synthesis.
• Transmembrane proteins serve as structural
links that connect the cytoskeleton through
the lipid bilayer to either the extracellular
matrix or an adjacent cell, while others serve
as receptors to detect and transduce chemical
signals in the cell’s environment
Which classes of biomolecules are represented
here?
extracellular matrix (outside) carbohydrate
receptor
protein glycoprotein
phospholipid protein
recognition protein binding bilayer
site transport
cholesterol
phospholipid pore protein
Cytoplasm
protein filaments
cytosol (inside)
extracellular matrix (outside) carbohydrate
receptor
protein glycoprotein
phospholipid protein
recognition protein binding bilayer
site transport
cholesterol
phospholipid pore protein
Cytoplasm
protein filaments
cytosol (inside)
Functions of Lipids
Made mainly of carbon and hydrogen (few
oxygen)
Fat best method of STORING
Forms cell membrane
Insulates nerve cells (myelin)
Insulates body (maintains homeostasis)
Fats, oils, waxes, steroids
LOOK FOR THE “E”
Monomer:
3 fatty acids + glycerol
The difference
Membrane Lipids
• Phospholipids
• Cholesterol
• Glycolipids
Amphipatic;
which has both hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups
Phospholipids
4 major phospholipids
Phospholipids spontaneously form bilayer
Membrane components:
Lipid bilayer
extracellular fluid
(watery environment)
phospholipid hydrophilic
heads
hydrophobic
tails
bilayer
hydrophilic
heads
cytosol
(watery environment)
How hydrophilic and
hydrophobic molecules interact
differently in water ?
Hydrophilic molecules dissolve
readily in water because they contain
charged
groups or uncharged polar groups
that can form either favorable
electrostatic
interactions or hydrogen bonds with
water molecules
On the shape !
The shape and amphiphilic nature of the phospholipid
molecules cause them to form
bilayers
spontaneously in aqueous environments
Self sealing.
Self assemble
Membrane Lipids
• Phospholipids
• Cholesterol
• Glycolipids
Mechanic stability
CHOLESTEROL
• It binds to hydrocarbon tails making it
more difficult for smaller molecules
to cross membrane.
• If the phospholipids are saturated, it
prevents them from being packed too
closely, making the membrane more
fluid
• If the phospholipids are unsaturated
there are kinks in the tails where the
cholesterol molecules can fill in and
anchor them making the membrane
less fluid.
Fluidity
Self sealing.
Self assemble
Membrane lipids can dance!!
• Scramblase is a protein
• Flippase X Floppase responsible for the
• Transmembrane lipid translocation of
transporter proteins located phospholipids between the
in the membrane two monolayers of a lipid
• flip-flop transition bilayer of a cell membrane
• ATP dependent
Membrane components:
Lipid bilayer
extracellular fluid
(watery environment)
phospholipid hydrophilic
heads
hydrophobic
tails
bilayer
hydrophilic
?
heads
cytosol
(watery environment)
• Animals exploit the phospholipid asymmetry
of their plasma membranes to distinguish
between live and dead cells
Membrane Lipids
• Phospholipids
• Cholesterol
• Glycolipids
In addition to phospholipids and
cholesterol the lipid bilayers in cell
membranes contain
glycolipids.
• In addition to phospholipids, the lipid bilayers
in many cell membranes contain glycolipids
and cholesterol.
Glycolipids; are lipids with a carbohydrate attached by a
glycosidic bond.
• Glycolipids resemble sphingolipids, but, instead of a phosphate-linked
head group, they have sugars attached
• Their role is to serve as markers for cellular
recognition
• The carbohydrates are found on the outer
surface of all eukaryotic cell membranes.
• They extend from the phospholipid bilayer
into the aqueous environment outside the
cell where it acts as a recognition site for
specific chemicals as well as helping to
maintain the stability of the membrane and
attaching cells to one another to form
tissues
Functions
• 1) Cell–cell Interactions
• 2) Immune Responses
• 3) Blood types
1) Cell–cell Interactions
• The main function of glycolipids in the body is to serve as recognition sites
for cell–cell interactions.
• The sugar moiety of the glycolipid will bind to a specific complementary
carbohydrate or lectin, type of cell-surface protein, of a neighboring cell.
• The interaction of these cell surface markers initiates cellular responses
that contribute to activities such as cell recognition, regulation, growth,
and apoptosis
2) Immune Responses
The interaction between leukocytes and endothelial
cells during inflammation
3) Blood types
• are an example of how glycolipids on cell
membranes mediate cell interactions with the
surrounding environment. There are four
different blood types present in humans (A, B,
AB, O) that are determined by the sugar
moiety attached to a specific glycolipid on
blood cells.
The Fluidity of a Lipid Bilayer Depends
on Its Composition
The Asymmetry of the Lipid Bilayer Is
Functionally Important
• The lipid compositions of the two monolayers
of the lipid bilayer in many membranes are
strikingly different!
• The lipid compositions of the inner and outer
monolayers are different, reflecting the
different functions of the two faces of a cell
membrane.
Figure 7.8
Fluid Viscous
Unsaturated hydrocarbon Saturated hydrocarbon tails
tails
(a) Unsaturated versus saturated hydrocarbon tails
(b) Cholesterol within the animal
cell membrane
Cholesterol
The Fluidity of Membranes
• Phospholipids in the plasma membrane can
move within the bilayer
• Most of the lipids, and some proteins, drift
laterally
• Rarely does a molecule flip-flop transversely
across the membrane
Biological membranes consist of a continuous double layer of lipid molecules in which
membrane proteins are embedded
Membrane Proteins and Their Functions
• A membrane is a collage of different proteins,
often grouped together, embedded in the fluid
matrix of the lipid bilayer
• Proteins determine most of the membrane’s
specific functions
• Peripheral proteins are bound to the surface of the
membrane
• Integral proteins penetrate the hydrophobic core;that
span the membrane are called transmembrane
proteins
• The hydrophobic regions of an integral protein
consist of one or more stretches of nonpolar amino
acids, often coiled into alpha helices
Transmembrane proteins extend across the lipid bilayer.
• Some of these membrane proteins are
– Single-pass proteins, in whichthe polypeptide chain
crosses the bilayer as a single α helix
– Multipass multipass proteins, in which the
polypeptide chain crosses the bilayer multiple times
– membrane proteins do not span the bilayer but
instead are attached to either side of the membrane;
• Some are attached to the cytosolic side by an amphipathic a
helix on the protein surface or by the covalent attachment of
one or more lipid chains, others are attached to the
noncytosolic side by a GPI anchor
• Membrane-associated proteins are bound by noncovalent
interactions with transmembrane proteins
(1)a single α helix,
(2) as multiple α helices,
(3)as a rolled-up β sheet (a β barrel). Some
of these “single-pass” and “multipass”
proteins have a covalently attached
fatty acid chain inserted in the cytosolic
lipid monolayer (1). Other membrane
proteins are exposed at only one side
of the membrane. (4) Some of these are
anchored to the cytosolic surface by an
amphiphilic α helix that partitions into the
cytosolic monolayer of the lipid bilayer
through the hydrophobic face of the helix.
(5) Others are attached to the bilayer solely
by a covalently bound lipid chain—either
a fatty acid chain or a prenyl group—in the cytosolic monolayer
or, (6) via an oligosaccharide linker, to
phosphatidylinositol in the noncytosolic monolayer—called a GPI anchor. (7, 8)
• Six major functions of membrane proteins
– Transport
– Enzymatic activity
– Signal transduction
– Cell-cell recognition
– Intercellular joining
– Attachment to the cytoskeleton and
extracellular matrix (ECM)
Figure 7.10
Signaling molecule
Receptor
Enzymes
ATP
Signal transduction
(a) Transport (b) Enzymatic activity (c) Signal transduction
Glyco-
protein
(d) Cell-cell recognition (e) Intercellular joining (f) Attachment to
the cytoskeleton
and extracellular
matrix (ECM)
• Most of the proteins exposed on the cell
surface and some of the lipid molecules in the
outer lipid monolayer have oligosaccharide
chains covalently attached to them.
• Many membrane proteins are able to diffuse
rapidly in the plane of the membrane but flip
flop!!
• Most membrane CH are
either glycolipid or
glycoprotein
The Role of Membrane Carbohydrates in
Cell-Cell Recognition
• Cells recognize each other by binding to surface
molecules, often containing carbohydrates, on
the extracellular surface of the plasma
membrane
• Membrane carbohydrates may be covalently
bonded to lipids (forming glycolipids) or more
commonly to proteins (forming glycoproteins)
• Carbohydrates on the external side of the
plasma membrane vary among species,
individuals, and even cell types in an individual
The carbohydrate layer
on the cell surface.
Fluid-Mosaic Model
Reference
• Molecular Biology of the Cell, Bruce
Alberts etal… 7th eddition
