[Disturbance of osmotic equilibrium as a possible cause of invagination or protrusion of plasmalemma on the initial stage od phagocytosis].
Despite the importance of phagocytosis studying for purposes of physiology and medicine, a physical cause of the initial stage of phagosome generation still remains apparently unclear. The original mathematical theory (Rubinstein, 1998) allows to suggest that the disturbance of osmotic equilibrium, resulting from the interaction between lysosomal hydrolases and their specific substrates, may cause the initial stage of phagosome formation in all biochemically diverse cases of phagocytosis. The author developed this theory without a collaboration with biologists, except for several consultations. The purpose of this paper is to attract the biologists attention to the main ideas underlying this theory, and to learn to what degree these ideas may be reasonable from the viewpoints of biologists.
Rubinstein
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Fredy and Nadine Herrmann School of Applied Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
D000818:Animals; D002462:Cell Membrane / Q000502:physiology / Q000648:ultrastructure; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010587:Phagocytosis; D014882:Water-Electrolyte Balance