Kinetics of Enzymatic Reactions Catalysed by Immobilised Enzymes

As we have just seen, in living cells some enzymes are bound to membranes, whereas others are bound to the cell wall in plants; they are immobilised in well-defined cellular compartments. Their behaviour differs from that of enzymes in solution; catalysis is no longer homogenous, rather it is heterogenous. For over thirty years diverse enzymes have been immobilised artificially to solid supports for use in biotechnology, and also to serve as models of immobilised enzymes in vivo. Numerous studies have been carried out on these systems in order to determine the kinetic laws that govern their functions (see the reviews by Silman & Katchalski, 1966; Engasser & Horvath, 1976; Ricard et al., 1994).