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Sodium–potassium pump
Pump · Na, K, P
- Numbers
- Three sodium out, two potassium in, per ATP. In a resting neuron this pump alone can take more than half the cell's energy budget.
- Kind
- Pump
Function
Spends one ATP to push three sodium ions out and haul two potassium ions in, against both gradients. That imbalance is the battery every nerve impulse discharges, and it is the gradient the Goldman–Hodgkin–Katz equation describes.
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