THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE RED CELL MEMBRANE

A cell's permeability is determined primarily by the chemical composition and the physical characteristics of its limiting membrane. Our present knowledge of the cell membrane is largely based on experimental work concerned with its permeability, surface forces, electrical properties and optical features [Höber (17); Harvey and Danielli (16) ; Schmitt (23)]. Another approach has been by the necessary but perhaps devious route of membrane and film models [Wilbrandt (27) ; Danielli (9) ; Schulmann and Rideal (25)]. The time is ripe for a consideration of the chemical composition of the cell membrane. There have been frequent references in the literature to possible relations between a hypothetical chemical composition of the cell surface and its permeability. A striking example of this was the contention of Mond (19) that the red cell surface must contain a basic protein, because he believed he had found a shift from normal anion permeability to one...