← all shorts

Concept

sodium-potassium pump

The image depicts a molecular structure representing the sodium-potassium pump, a membrane protein that exchanges sodium and potassium ions across cell membranes using ATP.

A membrane protein, formally Na+/K+-ATPase, that exports three sodium ions and imports two potassium ions per molecule of ATP consumed. Discovered by Jens Christian Skou in 1957, work that won him a share of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, it maintains the ion gradients every animal cell needs to signal, transport nutrients, and regulate volume. In the brain it accounts for a substantial fraction of all energy expenditure.

Mentioned in 1 article