Abstract
Lateral diffusion of lipids in biological membranes may be influenced by polypeptides, proteins, and other nonlipid membrane constituents. Using concepts from scaled-particle theory, we extend the free-volume model for lipid diffusion to membranes having an arbitrarily large number of components. This theory clarifies the interpretation of the free-volume theory, better reproduces the free-area dependence of lipid lateral diffusion rates, and quantitatively predicts the experimental observation that the lateral diffusion rates of membrane lipids are significantly reduced when proteins or polypeptides are incorporated in the membrane.