(eli5) In the phospholipid bilayer where does the fluid come from, is it the extra cellular fluid?

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Is the extra cellular fluid the materials that allows heads or tails in the cell membrane to attract or repel them ? What i mean is that is that the place where cells get the substances from?

In: Biology

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

“extra-cellular fluid” is literally just all the water outside the cells. Put a cell in a bowl of water, and the water is the extra-cellular fluid. Suspend the cell in a human-shaped bag of water (which is what a human is) and the extra-cellular fluid is the water that isn’t inside any of the cells.

Cell membranes work in the exact same way the whole oil in water thing does, only where oil forms “solid” bubbles that are oil all the way through, phospholipids form a thin layer that traps some of the water inside it. That trapped water is the cytoplasm.

Anonymous 0 Comments

The self-organizing nature of the phospholipid bilayer is due to the inherent chemical properties of every individual little phospholipid. They’ll form a bilayer in any water-based solution.