Physical-chemical mechanisms of transport through micropinocytosis

The mechanism of transcapillary transport through micropinocytosis is explained by the local change in the surface density of the Gibbs energy of the endotheliocyte membrane on clustering of the adsorbed plasma proteins. Change in the Gibbs energy may lead to the appearance of chemically induced bending moments and to curving of the membrane with formation of a caveole which on exposure to hydrostatic pressure of the blood, producing in the membrane isotropic tension, closes into a vesicle. Vesicular transport in the endothelium of the capillaries is regarded as a single endocytosis-exocytosis process occurring without material loss by the plasma membrane. © 1987.