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Subject: Re: Nonspecialist query: electric field in lipid bilayer.
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Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2002 04:04:33 GMT
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"Ronald L Wallace" <rwallace@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu> wrote in message
news:Pine.SOL.4.31.0201171541460.14495-100000@pegasus.cc.ucf.edu...
> Hello everybody.
>
> I'm a biological anthropologist with a biophysics query.  I apologize in
> advance if it's naive or incorrectly phrased.  Here it is:
>
> I'd like to know the electric field strength in volts per square
> centimeter produced in the neural membrane lipid bilayer by ion movement

The membrane potential can vary from cell to cell, it depends on the
specific neuron (there are many types) and on its specific state, anyway
consider a rest potential of -60mV to -90mV, then take in consideration that
the lipid bilayer is very thin, 5-10 nm, so the electric filed is
considerable high measured in V/m :-) another useful data is the
capacitance, often referred to as 1 uF/cm^2
(so the ions displacement is very modest, yet the E filed is huge and
important for the molecular machines enclosed in the bilayer ... the
intrinsic proteins)

> through a gated channel.  If you could direct me to sources on this, it
would

These data are available on every physiology book and on the internet it
should be very easy to look for proper sites, check for electrophysiology,
lipid bilayer, membrane potential, etc.

greetings :-)



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