EQUATIONS DESCRIBING PASSIVE TRANSPORT THROUGH VESICULAR MEMBRANES

A theoretical description of the kinetics of the passive transport of both lipophobic and lipophilic nonelectrolytes, weak acids, and weak b ases through membranes of large unilamellar vesicles is discussed. Equ ations are derived which may be used to obtain permeability coefficien ts and predict the extent of LW entrapment of permeant molecules. Theo retical curves are generated to illustrate the difference between lipo phobic and lipophilic permeation. By applying a diffusional approach r ather than a simple first order kinetic approach to the problem of pas sive transport, some of the inconsistencies observed in other works ar e corrected. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.