Biophysical Journal 60: 671-678 (1991)
© 1991 the Biophysical Society

This Article Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Zwanzig, R Articles by Szabo, A Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Zwanzig, R Articles by Szabo, A

Time dependent rate of diffusion-influenced ligand binding to receptors on cell surfaces.

Laboratory of Chemical Physics, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland 20892.

ABSTRACT

The theory of the kinetics of binding of ligands to a sphere partially covered by receptors is extended to provide the full time dependence of the reactive flux. The ligands diffuse to the receptors; the receptors are either fully or partially absorbing. The total flux into the sphere with many receptors is expressed analytically in terms of the flux into a single isolated receptor on the sphere. At steady state, the Berg-Purcell formula is generalized to the case where the binding to a single receptor is only partially diffusion controlled. At short times, the receptors behave independently and the total flux is the sum of the fluxes to the isolated receptors.