dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaA theory for the membrane potential of cells
| Authors | Lars Petter Endresen, Kevin Hall |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/9711016 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/9711016 |
Abstract
We give an explicit formula for the membrane potential of cells in terms of the intracellular and extracellular ionic concentrations, and derive equations for the ionic currents that flow through channels, exchangers and electrogenic pumps based on simple energy considerations and conservation laws. We demonstrate that the work done by the pump is equal to the potential energy of the cell plus the energy loss due to the downhill ionic fluxes through the channels and the exchanger. Our equations predict osmotic pressure variations. The theory is illustrated in a simple model of spontaneously active cells in the cardiac pacemaker. The simulated action potential and the five currents in the model are in excellent agreement with experiments. The model predicts the experimental observed intracellular ionic concentration of potassium, calcium and sodium. We do not see any drift of the values for the concentrations in a long time simulation, instead we can obtain the same asymptotic values starting with equal intracellular and extracellular ionic concentrations.
{
"annotation_id": "0d3d41ac-88a0-46a9-b0aa-f765eff9ebef",
"date_created": "2026-03-02T18:01:21.839000Z",
"date_modified": "2026-03-02T18:01:21.839000Z",
"file_hash": "45fed259ef703b2574d5d392899bcc144be4f52a70b47853465fa6fb56f9ea92",
"private": false,
"record": {
"abstract": "We give an explicit formula for the membrane potential of cells in terms of\nthe intracellular and extracellular ionic concentrations, and derive equations\nfor the ionic currents that flow through channels, exchangers and electrogenic\npumps based on simple energy considerations and conservation laws. We\ndemonstrate that the work done by the pump is equal to the potential energy of\nthe cell plus the energy loss due to the downhill ionic fluxes through the\nchannels and the exchanger. Our equations predict osmotic pressure variations.\nThe theory is illustrated in a simple model of spontaneously active cells in\nthe cardiac pacemaker. The simulated action potential and the five currents in\nthe model are in excellent agreement with experiments. The model predicts the\nexperimental observed intracellular ionic concentration of potassium, calcium\nand sodium. We do not see any drift of the values for the concentrations in a\nlong time simulation, instead we can obtain the same asymptotic values starting\nwith equal intracellular and extracellular ionic concentrations.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/9711016",
"authors": [
"Lars Petter Endresen",
"Kevin Hall"
],
"categories": [
"physics.bio-ph",
"physics.class-ph",
"q-bio"
],
"title": "A theory for the membrane potential of cells",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/9711016"
},
"schema_id": "dorsal/arxiv",
"source": {
"execution_id": "e220e117-fb22-45fc-92a6-f8ab82b0f426",
"id": "arXiv Dataset IDs",
"type": "Model",
"variant": "snapshot-2026-03-01",
"version": "0.1.0"
},
"user_id": 1000002
}