During exercise, potassium ions accumulate in the fluid that surrounds muscle cells. Which cell membrane protein helps muscle cells counteract this tendency?
1 Answer
Aug 27, 2016
The sodium-potassium pump.
Explanation:
The concentration of sodium and potassium inside and outside the muscle cells are important in the regulation of contraction. These concentrations differ when a muscle is relaxing or contracting.
- Contraction: potassium concentrations are higher outside the cell than inside the cell.
- Relaxation: the potassium concentrations are higher inside the cell than outside the cell.
The muscle cell needs some kind of active transport to pump the potassium ions back into the cell. This is wat the sodium-potassium pump does. This pump is driven by ATP and exchanges a sodium ion from inside the cell with a potassium ion outside the cell.
