What is co processer?

Answer 1

Basically Co-transport is the movement of molecules such as Glucose and Amino Acids into the epithelial cells lining the small intestine.This can be quite complicated to learn.In this case we'll look at Glucose :)

There are three different protein carriers/channelszperiodz

Firstly Sodium ions in the epithelium are taken actively out of the epithelium and into the blood by the sodium-potassium pump.This process is active transport as it uses ATP.

This in turn causes the sodium ion concentration to lower.So there is a low concentration of sodium ions in the epithelium but a high concentration in the lumen of the small intestine. Therefore the sodium ions in the lumen can now diffuse down the concentration gradient and into the epithelium, however as they do they couple with Glucose molecules in the lumen and drag them into the epithelium with them.The protein channel used is the co-transport protein.

There is now a high concentration of Glucose in the epithelium and a low concentration in the blood, therefore by Facilitated difussion the glucose molecules are taken into the blood :) Hope that helps !!