Question

What are the cellular functions/properties that are essential for establishing a membrane potential?

Answer 1

All living cells maintain a potential difference across their membrane. Simply stated, membrane potential is due to disparities in concentration and permeability of important ions across a membrane. Because of the unequal concentrations of ions across a membrane, the membrane has an electrical charge. Changes in membrane potential elicit action potentials and give cells the ability to send messages around the body. More specifically, the action potentials are electrical signals; these signals carry efferent messages to the central nervous system for processing and afferent messages away from the brain to elicit a specific reaction or movement. Numerous active transports embedded within the cellular membrane contribute to the creation of membrane potentials, as well as the universal cellular structure of the lipid bilayer. The chemistry involved in membrane potentials reaches to many scientific disciplines. Chemically it involves molarity, concentration, electrochemistry and the Nernst equation. From a physiological standpoint, membrane potential is responsible for sending messages to and from the central nervous system. It is also very important in cellular biology and shows how cell biology is fundamentally connected with electrochemistry and physiology