A typical cell, as seen by the light microscope, is shown in Figure 1. Its two major parts are the nucleus and the cytoplasm. The nucleus is separated from the cytoplasm by a nuclear membrane, and the cytoplasm is separated from the surrounding fluids by a cell membrane, also called the plasma membrane.

The different substances that make up the cell are collectively called protoplasm. Protoplasm is composed mainly of five basic substances: water, electrolytes, proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates.

Water. The principal fluid medium of the cell is water, which is present in most cells, except for fat cells, in a concentration of 70 to 85 percent. Many cellular chemicals are dissolved in the water. Others are suspended in the water as solid particulates. Chemical reactions take place among the dissolved chemicals or at the surfaces of the suspended particles or membranes.

Ions. Important ions in the cell include potassium, magnesium, phosphate, sulfate, bicarbonate, and smaller quantities of sodium, chloride, and calcium. which considers the interrelations between the intracellular and extracellular fluids.

The ions provide inorganic chemicals for cellular reactions and also are necessary for operation of some of the cellular control mechanisms. For instance, ions acting at the cell membrane are required for transmission of electrochemical impulses in nerve and muscle fibers.

Proteins. After water, the most abundant substances in most cells are proteins, which normally constitute 10 to 20 percent of the cell mass. These proteins can be divided into two types: structural proteins and functional proteins.

Structural proteins are present in the cell mainly in the form of long filaments that are polymers of many individual protein molecules. A prominent use of such intracellular filaments is to form microtubules that provide the “cytoskeletons” of such cellular organelles as cilia, nerve axons, the mitotic spindles of cells undergoing mitosis, and a tangled mass of thin filamentous tubules that hold the parts of the cytoplasm and nucleoplasm together in their respective compartments. Fibrillar proteins are found outside the cell, especially in the collagen and elastin fibers of connective tissue and in blood vessel walls, tendons, ligaments, and so forth.

The functional proteins are an entirely different type of protein and are usually composed of combinations of a few molecules in tubular-globular form. These proteins are mainly the enzymes of the cell and, in contrast to the fibrillar proteins, are often mobile in the cell fluid. Also, many of them are adherent to membranous structures inside the cell. The enzymes come into direct contact with other substances in the cell fluid and catalyze specific intracellular chemical reactions. For instance, the chemical reactions that split glucose into its component parts and then combine these with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water while simultaneously providing energy for cellular function are all catalyzed by a series of protein enzymes.

Lipids. Lipids are several types of substances that are grouped together because of their common property of being soluble in fat solvents. Especially important lipids are phospholipids and cholesterol, which together constitute only about 2 percent of the total cell mass. The significance of phospholipids and cholesterol is that they are mainly insoluble in water and therefore are used to form the cell membrane and intracellular membrane barriers that separate the different cell compartments.

In addition to phospholipids and cholesterol, some cells contain large quantities of triglycerides, also called neutral fat. In the fat cells, triglycerides often account for as much as 95 percent of the cell mass. The fat stored in these cells represents the body’s main storehouse of energy-giving nutrients that can later be used to provide energy wherever in the body it is needed.

Carbohydrates. Carbohydrates have little structural function in the cell except as parts of glycoprotein molecules, but they play a major role in nutrition of the cell. Most human cells do not maintain large stores of carbo hydrates; the amount usually averages about 1 percent of their total mass but increases to as much as 3 percent in muscle cells and, occasionally, 6 percent in liver cells. However, carbohydrate in the form of dissolved glucose is always present in the surrounding extracellular fluid so that it is readily available to the cell. Also, a small amount of carbohydrate is stored in the cells in the form of glycogen, which is an insoluble polymer of glucose that can be depolymerized and used rapidly to supply the cells’ energy needs.

Fig1. Structure of the cell as seen with the light microscope.