| MadSci Network: Cell Biology |
The definitive answer is: it depends. It depends on how the cell "died". Most forms of cell death include getting holes in the membrane, and if that happens any type of transport (active or passive) is pretty much impossible. The transport proteins might still be working, but whatever they're moving across the membrane would just leak back through the holes, so there's no transport. If there aren't holes in the membrane, then passive transport should still work. For active transport, it depends again. Usually for active transport you just need the transporter and an energy source (like ATP). As long as the energy source is still around, active transport will still go on. Chances are, though, that the dead cell isn't making more ATP as the old is used up, so pretty soon it will run out and active transport will stop. Other forms of active transport don't use ATP directly, but they still count on the cell using energy. When the cell dies, those transporters will also stop working before long. If you want more information on cell transport, you might try this web site: http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/D/Diffusion.html
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