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pubmed:abstractText |
The transport of gaseous compounds across biological membranes is essential in all forms of life. Although it was generally accepted that gases freely penetrate the lipid matrix of biological membranes, a number of studies challenged this doctrine as they found biological membranes to have extremely low gas-permeability values. These observations led to the identification of several membrane-embedded "gas" channels, which facilitate the transport of biological active gases, such as carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, and ammonia. However, some of these findings are in contrast to the well-established solubility-diffusion model (also known as the Meyer-Overton rule), which predicts membrane permeabilities from the molecule's oil-water partition coefficient. Herein, we discuss recently reported violations of the Meyer-Overton rule for small molecules, including carboxylic acids and gases, and show that Meyer and Overton continue to rule.
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