chloride transport - dumb question ??

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anonymous

New member
This might be a dumb question but could someone please explain the following to me;
Why, if the CFTR channel (in CFers) doesn't work, can chloride (salt) be transported around the body at all? I mean, how is salt absorbed through the intestines and how does it get into cells and sweat?

Thanks for any replies.

Charlie (a girl!)
 
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IG

Guest
http://www.ygyh.org/cf/cause.htm

I haven't sat through the whole thing but from the looks of it it seems to be pretty acurate.
 
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anonymous

New member
Thanks Candice.
That site helped me understand the sweat part but it doesn't explain how chloride travels around the rest of body.
I guess it wasn't such a dumb question afterall - no one knows the answer!

Charlie
 
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anonymous

New member
The answer is Osmosis. CF prevents cells from actively transporting the chloride ion through it's membrane, but it doesn't prevent the chloride ion from passively passing through the membrane of the cell. It works this way...the cells always wants to be in balance, if there is a really high concentration of chloride ions on the outside of the cell wall, then some of those ions will pass through the membrane to try to balance the concentration on both sides of the cell membrane. But this osmosis method does not supply enough chloride to the cell on it's own, that's why cells in normal people have chloride channels that can open and actively go get all the chloride it needs from outside the cell.
 
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IG

Guest
mmm I was about to look that up in my bio book.
But yup, that's pretty much it.
 
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anonymous

New member
osmosis is the movement of water though, not ions. how is it that chloride ions can move through the cell membrane without a cftr channel? is there another channel that can transport chloride ions? the cell membrane is made of lipids/phospholipids so it can only "passively" transport a lipid based molecule.
 
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