January This translation by the NDI Foundation is to assist the lay reader. To provide a clear, accessible interpretation of the original article, we eliminated or simplified some technical detail and complicated scientific language. The NDI Foundation thanks the researchers for their work toward understanding and more effectively treating this disorder.
Water moves in and out of most cells by diffusing through fat in the cells' outer membranes .
But some cells allow so much water to permeate in and out of them that researchers predicted these cells would have some sort of channel in their membranes that, at the proper time, would open up to allow the easy and full entry and exit of water through the cell membrane. Later research identified such a channel, dubbed water channels, and described their physiologic function. More recent research uncovered and explained the molecular basis of water channels. Water channels were discovered to be proteins . The water channels in red blood cell membranes are water-selective.