Ionic Differential

Intra-cellular concentrations of ions are quite different from the ones found in extracellular spaces/fluids. For example: while the concentrations of K and Na ions are 139 and 12 mM within an erythrocyte, the concentration of the same ions are (respectively) 4 and 145 mM in the blood/plasma. That is, The ratio of in versus out for the K ions is about 35:1 whereas it is 1:12 for Na ions. Maintenance of this differential is crucial for sustenance of life activities. The classical cell membrane theory maintains that the cell membrane works as an intelligently controlled system with modalities to recognize and transport all molecules/ions; including pumps porters and pores. In this purview, the ionic differential is supposedly maintained by active pumping action activity of membrane proteins like Na-K-ATPase, in definite ratios.

In the synthetic murburn purview (which incorporates some elements of the membrane theory and some elements of Association-Induction hypothesis) new concepts based in thermodynamics of electron transfers and reactivity (rather than binding affinity) of the ions are invoked. The new perspective advocates that ion-translocation and adsorption events occurring at the membrane interface AND, bulk-phase, both are important, as well as solubilization effects afforded by murburn activities of diverse biomolecules. The concentration or distribution of ions/solutes in cells and organelles can be compared to the human population of a town or village. It is not just policing at the national frontier that determines who lives in a house or who sits on a chair in a commonplace or what vehicle is seen in a parking lot. The populace and distribution of citizens are an outcome of multiple causative rationales.