what feature of a cell membrane allows it to repair itself quicky?

Question

Say a whole is placed in a cell membrane, it must have to repair itslef quicky or its contents would spill out. I was wondering how it does this? Is it something to do with its semi-permeability?

Answer 1

There are a number of things that help a cell membrane heal quickly.

The first is that it's almost liquid. In fact, in hot climates your cells manufacture carbohydrates and stick them in the membrane so it won't get TOO liquid. The membrane itself and stuff in it can move around pretty easily. So it's kind of like trying to make a hole in one of those 'ball pits' that children play in. Even if you scoop balls away, others just flow into the space.

What holds them between the inside and the outside of the cell has to do with their specific chemical makeup. The cell membrane has a hydrophobic (doesn't like water) inside sandwiched between two hydrophilic (likes water) outsides. Since pretty much all the molecules both on the inside and the outside of a cell are water (98% of the molecules in the human body are water), that hydrophobic inside in only happy hiding where it is. Since most molecules are largely EITHER hydrophobic OR hydrophilic, there's no place else for those lipids which are both in the cell membrane to go!

The last, and often overlooked, structure that holds the cell membrane together is the cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleon does for a cell much what a skeleton does for an organism - it gives it shape, helps it move, and keeps things where they are supposed to be. It is anchored on the cell membrane, so to a limited extent it can hold it in place. Perhaps it would be better to say that since the membrane is so flexible and fluid, it provides places for it to glom around. Which probably helps with tears in the same way that holding both sides of a wound together keeps you from bleeding much.

Answer 2

The phospholipids of the bilayer move around each other freely, very much like a fluid. So the molecules just move together to fill the space.

Think of the hole left when you dip a cup of water out of a lake. No hole! The water moves in to fill the space.

Answer 3

Lysosomes

Answer 4

Stitches down at A&E....or ER