Modulation of Plasma Membrane Architecture in Animal Cells

The Freeze-Fracture Technique: Application to the Study of Animal Plasma Membranes

During recent years, the freeze-fracture (FF) technique has become one of the most useful procedures available for the ultrastructural analysis of cell components, particularly for the study of biological membranes. The method has gradually evolved from a highly specialized and technically complex procedure to a reasonably accesible one, mainly as a consequence of improvements in commercial FF equipment, the understanding of the fracturing process and the artifacts induced, and the development of ancillary techniques for the study of cell membrane organization. Due to these advances, the FF method can be considered at present as an almost standard procedure for biological electron microscopical laboratories.

Metastable equilibrium with random local fluctuations: simulations of dynamic receptor pattern generation in a fluid mosaic membrane

The generation of receptors in the animal cell's membrane was simulated by a model consisting of units in four possible states within a hexagonal area (playboard) of n units of a triangular network. The state of each unit was determined by the previous state of itself and of its six nearest neighbours, as regulated by a set of transition rules, which kept the mean relative frequency (m.r.f.) of each state constant. The transition rules were applied to the system exactly n times, regardless whether this involved selection of a unit on 0, 1, 2 or more occasions (programme "random selection with repeat"; RS-R). Comparison to previous results obtained by other ways of application of the rules has shown that the RS-R programme accounted for the highest m.r.f. of quiet (Q) units and Q clusters (sub-patterns), and also for the longest survival of Q configurations through several generations. Functioning of the model under the RS-R programme simulates an integrated system in metastable equilibrium with random local fluctuations, such as the cytoplasmic membrane is imagined to be in standardized environmental conditions. The formation-persistence-disintegration cycle of the sub-patterns is believed to simulate the dynamic generation of transitory receptor configurations in the cell membrane.