ABSTRACT
In the course of an in vitro system search for the toxicity screening of chemicals with biological relevance, different cellular models have been applied to examine their adverse effects. The cell membrane is a diffusion barrier which protects the cell interior. Therefore, its structure and functions are susceptible to alterations as a consequence of interactions with chemical species. With the aim to better understand the molecular mechanisms of the interaction of chemical species with cell membranes we utilized human erythrocytes and molecular models of the erythrocyte membrane. Erythrocytes were chosen because although less specialized than many other cell membranes they carry on enough functions in common with them such as active and passive transport, and the production of ionic and electric gradients, to be considered representative of the plasma membrane in general. The molecular models consist of bilayers of dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) and dimyristoylphosphatidylethanolamine (DMPE), representative of phospholipid classes located in the outer and inner monolayers of the human erythrocyte membrane, respectively (Boon and Smith, 2002; Devaux and Zachowsky, 1994).
