Molecular movements of receptors on cell surface 1

Abstract

Cell membrane can be considered as a two-dimensional solution. Membrane components may undergo molecular movements in the plane of the membrane. In the present report, we summarize our studies on two types of these movements, namely, electrophoretic migration and Brownian diffusion, for two types of cell surface receptors: a heterogeneous group of concanavalin A receptors and a specific membrane protein/ionic channel, acetylcholine (ACh) receptors.