News tagged with cell membrane

Scientists identify an innate function of vitamin E

It's rubbed on the skin to reduce signs of aging and consumed by athletes to improve endurance but scientists now have the first evidence of one of vitamin E's normal body functions.

Medical research created Dec 20, 2011 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (16) | comments 4 | with audio podcast

Scientists show how fatty diets cause diabetes

Newly diagnosed type 2 diabetics tend to have one thing in common: obesity. Exactly how diet and obesity trigger diabetes has long been the subject of intense scientific research. A new study led by Jamey ...

Medical research created Aug 14, 2011 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (15) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

In vitro study finds digested formula, but not breast milk, is toxic to cells

Free fatty acids created during the digestion of infant formula cause cellular death that may contribute to necrotizing enterocolitis, a severe intestinal condition that is often fatal and occurs most commonly ...

Pediatrics created Dec 10, 2012 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (12) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

An 'off' switch for pain: Chemists build light-controlled neural inhibitor

Pain? Just turn it off! It may sound like science fiction, but researchers based in Munich, Berkeley and Bordeaux have now succeeded in inhibiting pain-sensitive neurons on demand, in the laboratory. The crucial element in ...

Medical research created Feb 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Recipe for large numbers of stem cells requires only one ingredient

Stem cells and tissue-specific cells can be grown in abundance from mature mammalian cells simply by blocking a certain membrane protein, according to scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the ...

Medical research created Apr 17, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Study reveals natural process that blocks viruses

The human body has the ability to ward off viruses by activating a naturally occurring protein at the cellular level, setting off a chain reaction that disrupts the levels of cholesterol required in cell membranes to enable ...

Medical research created Apr 17, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (6) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

A better brain implant: Slim electrode cozies up to single neurons

(Medical Xpress)—A thin, flexible electrode developed at the University of Michigan is 10 times smaller than the nearest competition and could make long-term measurements of neural activity practical at ...

Neuroscience created Nov 11, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (6) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New vitamin-based treatment that could reduce muscle degeneration in muscular dystrophy

Boosting the activity of a vitamin-sensitive cell adhesion pathway has the potential to counteract the muscle degeneration and reduced mobility caused by muscular dystrophies, according to a research team led by scientists ...

Medical research created Oct 23, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Discovery could lead ways to prevent herpes spread

(Medical Xpress) -- Herpesviruses are thrifty reproducers -- they only send off their most infectious progeny to invade new cells. Two Cornell virologists recently have discovered how these viruses determine ...

Medical research created Sep 14, 2011 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Tension on gut muscles induces cell invasion in zebrafish intestine, mimicking cancer metastasis

The stiffness of breast tissue is increasingly recognized as an important factor explaining the onset of breast cancer. Stiffening induces molecular changes that promote cancerous behavior in cells. Bioengineering ...

Cancer created Sep 07, 2012 | popularity 4 / 5 (5) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Protein family linked to autism suppresses the development of inhibitory synapses

Synapse development is promoted by a variety of cell adhesion molecules that connect neurons and organize synaptic proteins. Many of these adhesion molecules are linked to neurodevelopmental disorders; mutations ...

Medical research created Jan 28, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Long-suspected cause of blindness from eye disease disproved

Vision scientists long have thought that lack of very long chain fatty acids in photoreceptor cells caused blindness in children with Stargardt type 3 retinal degeneration, an incurable eye disease. But researchers at the ...

Ophthalmology created Mar 11, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Notre Dame researchers report fundamental malaria discovery

A team of researchers led by Kasturi Haldar and Souvik Bhattacharjee of the University of Notre Dame's Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases has made a fundamental discovery in understanding how malaria parasites cause deadly ...

Medical research created Jan 20, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New tumor suppressor gene identified

A recent study published in Clinical Cancer Research suggests that the protein hVps37A suppresses tumor growth in ovarian cancer. The work, which was funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF, shows, for th ...

Cancer created Feb 13, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0

Breast cancer drug geldanamycin could halt other tumors

A drug commonly used in treating breast cancer could have far wider benefits, offering a new way of preventing cancers spreading through the body, according to a University of Leeds-led study.

Cancer created Nov 06, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Cell membrane

The cell membrane (also called the plasma membrane or plasmalemma) is the biological membrane separating the interior of a cell from the outside environment.

It is a semipermeable lipid bilayer found in all cells. It contains a wide variety of biological molecules, primarily proteins and lipids, which are involved in a vast array of cellular processes such as cell adhesion, ion channel conductance and cell signaling. The plasma membrane also serves as the attachment point for both the intracellular cytoskeleton and, if present, the extracellular cell wall.

For more information about Cell membrane, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: cells , protein , lipid , molecules , cancer cells