What is a proton pump?
In: Biology
They’re a type of protein that’s embedded in the membrane surrounding cells that moves H+ (hydrogen ions, a hydrogen without an electron, aka a proton) from the inside of the cell to the external environment.
Since pH (how acidic something is) is a measure of how many H+ ions there are present, this makes the environment more acidic. So your stomach lining, for example, has a lot of proton pumps, and proton pump inhibitor drugs are used to reduce the amount of stomach acid produced.
Protons can’t pass through the cell membrane freely (it would actually be bad if they could, since our cells couldn’t regulate their pH, and more broadly, life as we know it just wouldn’t work), which is why they need assistance from proton pumps. The process uses up energy. (ATP)
Edit: And as u/Arcaeca2 wrote, they’re also used to make ATP in the mitochondria, but I’m really not up to trying to explain cellular respiration and the electron transport chain in an ELI5.
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