A polarized membrane is a
lipid membrane
The lipid bilayer (or phospholipid bilayer) is a thin polar membrane made of two layers of lipid molecules. These membranes are flat sheets that form a continuous barrier around all cells. The cell membranes of almost all organisms and many vir ...
that has a positive electrical charge on one side and a negative charge on another side, which produces the
resting potential A relatively static membrane potential which is usually referred to as the ground value for trans-membrane voltage.
The relatively static membrane potential of quiescent cells is called the resting membrane potential (or resting voltage), as op ...
in living cells. Whether or not a membrane is polarized is determined by the distribution of dissociable
proton
A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron mass ...
s and permeant
ions inside and outside the membrane that travel ''passively'' through
ion channel
Ion channels are pore-forming membrane proteins that allow ions to pass through the channel pore. Their functions include establishing a resting membrane potential, shaping action potentials and other electrical signals by gating the flow of ...
or ''actively'' via
ion pump, creating an
action potential
An action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific cell location rapidly rises and falls. This depolarization then causes adjacent locations to similarly depolarize. Action potentials occur in several types of animal cells ...
.
See also
*
Membrane transporter
A membrane transport protein (or simply transporter) is a membrane protein involved in the movement of ions, small molecules, and macromolecules, such as another protein, across a biological membrane. Transport proteins are integral transmembran ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Polar Membrane
Membrane biology
Electrophysiology