Synopses & Reviews
This monograph assembles an international array of leading clinicians and researchers to present the current body of knowledge on the molecular structure of ion channels and their function, using such techniques as voltage clamping and single channel recording, measurements of gating currents, molecular cloning and other genetic manipulations. The monograph provides the information needed to understand the role that the movement of ions has in the function and malfunction of essentially all organ systems. This monograph will impress upon the reader the multiple and interdependent responses of ion channels to physiologic stimuli, pharmacologic agonists and agents of disease and their multiple interdependent roles in diverse physiologic processes, including the regulation of electrolyte and water balance and arterial pressure, in the maintenance of endocrine and metabolic homeostasis, in the control of neuromuscular responses, in the action of anesthetic drugs, in the pathogenesis of the recently described Syndrome X (obesity, hypertension, and diabetes), and in their antibacterial effectiveness. This volume is for all clinicians and researchers interested in the far reaching effects of the various, diverse roles of ion channels, their intricate structure, and their complex functions.
Synopsis
Omnis cellula e cellula, "every cell from a cell," was dogma to the 19th century cellular physiologist and the cornerstone of Virchow's Cellular pathologie. "Spread out a cell into a layer and you will find that, in ceasing to be a cell, it has ceased to act as such," wrote the British 1 physiologist G . R. Lewes more than a century age. "The cell remains vital as long as its wall remains intact . . . " keeping its content "pure and clear" and thus preserving the "vital principle" within, echoed Claude 2 Bernard a few years later. The notion of the cell membrane as a pro tecting envelope held sway until it became clear that it could not account for the "coalescence" of poorly differentiated embryonic "vesicles" and for their transformation into "cell-like structures" capable of auto regulation and yet subject to what the grandfather of one of us defined as the "federal obligations imposed by the whole organism., 3 A new concept was needed, and soon the membrane was described as a structure capable of uniting as well as separating adjacent cells. Morphologic evidence for this dual function was obtained several years later when the electron microscope revealed the existence of tight and gap junc tions which, acting as intercellular bonds and channels, allowed the cells to communicate with one another and thus coordinate their biologic activities."