Most current knowledge about the biochemical constituents of cell membranes originates in studies of red blood cells. The chief advantage of these cells for experimental purposes is that they may be obtained easily in large amounts and that they have no internal membranous organelles to interfere with study of their cell membranes. Careful studies of these and other cell types have shown that all membranes are composed of proteins and fatty-acid-based lipids. Membranes actively involved in metabolism contain a higher proportion of protein; thus, the membrane of the mitochondrion, the most rapidly metabolizing organelle of the cell, contains as much as 75 percent protein, while the membrane of the Schwann cell, which forms an insulating sheath around many nerve cells, has as little as 20 percent protein.
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