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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2011 Dec 12.
Published in final edited form as: Crit Rev Clin Lab Sci. 2010 Aug;47(4):181–195. doi: 10.3109/10408363.2010.536429

Figure 1. Kinetic modeling of intestinal Ca absorption demonstrates the existence of saturable and non-saturable pathways.

Figure 1

Examination of Ca absorption under a range of luminal concentrations have demonstrated that total Ca transport is described by a curvilinear function. Total transport (A+B) is the sum of a saturable component (A) (defined by the Michaelis-Menton equation) and a concentration-dependent, non-saturable component (B) (defined by a linear equation). A = Saturable Ca Tx; B = Non-saturable Ca Tx; [Ca2+] = luminal concentration of Ca; C = the slope of the non-saturable linear component; Vmax = the maximum transport rate for the saturable transport component; Km = the luminal concentration of Ca at ½ Vmax. Tx = transport.