The Differences Between Intracellular and Extracellular ATP

In this health video you will learn the differences between intracellular and extracellular ATP (adenosine triphosphate).

Raena Morgan: Hi, I'm Raena Morgan with iHealthTube. We're visiting with Dr. Eli Rapaport, the distinguished scientist, and he is talking to us about ATP. And, you call it the universal energy source. What we want to know today Dr. Rapaport is the intracellular versus extracellular ATP. Could you explain that to the viewers? Dr. Eli Rapaport: Yes. As we saw earlier on ATP is the major energy source inside every cell. ATP supplies the energy for the formation of chemical bonds; it supplies the energy for the mechanical function of muscles, skeletal muscles and cardiac muscles. Raena Morgan: You call it the ancient molecule. Dr. Eli Rapaport: Right. It has been in existence since cells were formed because once cells were formed they needed to maintain, originally, the membrane potential. In other words, they needed to keep sodium out and potassium in, for instance. However, the big excitement in the ATP research came in about the early 1980s where it was discovered that ATP has a major roll outside the cell, extracellularly. It was a huge discovery, it was not done by myself, but that actually is the science that stimulates or pushes supplements like Peak ATP. In other words, the great interest in supplements like Peak ATP has to do with the basic science that's done worldwide, that pushes the interest in this particular compound. Till now, there are 15 different receptors that have been identified for ATP, and 4 for adenosine. Now, out of the 15 receptors, 8 belong to 1 kind and 7 to the other kind and they're called either P2X or P2Y, P2X1 and P2X2 and so forth. And the adenosine receptors are A1, A2 Alpha to A2 beta 8A3. Now, the significance of this extracellular ATP is that it enables us to supplement the extracellular compartment of the blood. For instance, in the blood there are about 2.7 grams of ATP and that is something that we cannot, this is intracellularly, red blood cells. And this is we could never replace that, however, the level of extracellular ATP is about 2 grams, 2 milligrams, I'm sorry, 1000 to 1-10000 less than the intracellular level. And that we can do. Raena Morgan: That we can do. Dr. Eli Rapaport: Now, the problem, as you can imagine, the extracellular receptors are essentially proteins if you can imagine this is the protein that fits, that's embedded in a plasma membrane of a cell, and then the ATP interacts with the receptor and brings about changes inside the cell. Now-- Raena Morgan: And those changes lead to? Dr. Eli Rapaport: Those changes lead to cell functions that are being carried on. Raena Morgan: okay. Like muscle function? Dr. Eli Rapaport: Muscle function, blood flow, glycemic control and so forth. Raena Morgan: Okay. Dr. Eli Rapaport: Now, the amount of ATP extracellularly is very, very small and that we can achieve by a nutritional supplement, Peak ATP. It's less than 2 milligrams and however supplement is in the range of 100 to 200 milligrams. Now, we can increase the intracellular inside the cell ATP by along both way by taking advantage of the activities of the extracellular ATP. Raena Morgan: Okay, well, thank you Dr. Rapaport. We'll visit again on this very interesting and exciting subject.