We'll cover the sodium-potassium pump more in transport but we'll touch on it a little bit here.
What does the pump do?
- The sodium-potassium pump helps maintain cell membrane potential between intra- and extra-cellular space
- This means cells keep their concentration at a form of equilibrium
- They keep a low concentration of Na+ ions and a high concentration of K+ ions in the intracellular space.
What else does the pump do?
The sodium-potassium pump has a number of other purposes as well.
- It affects transport (we'll learn about this later)
- It regulates cellular volume