Epithelial Secretion of Water and Electrolytes

This volume aims to give a comprehensive overview of the cellular mechanisms underlying the process of secretion in vertebrate, particularly mammalian, exocrine glands. The subject matter is divided into two sections. The first section deals with general aspects of secretion, including chapters on the roles of ion channels in secretion. Signal transduction is also covered, and several chapters deal with recently developed investigative techniques that offer promise as tools for the further investigation of exocrine secretory processes. The second section deals with secretion in a selection of exocrine organs: salivary glands, lacrimal glands, the pancreas, gastric mucosa, liver, epididymis, and vertebrate salt glands. A final chapter deals with cystic fibrosis, the common, fatal, inherited disease, which affects exocrine glands particularly severely.

In 1976, when Springer-Verlag commissioned Professors Giebisch, Tosteson, and Ussing to edit what was destined to become a monumental five-volume Handbuch (" Membrane Transport in Biology," 1978 Vols I, II, III] and 1979 Vols IV A, B]), the subject of transepithelial secretion was still in its infancy. Not surprisingly, therefore, their Handbuch concentrated mainly on trans- epithelial absorption, although substantial chapters dealing with some secre- viz. "Ion Transport Across the Choroid Plexus" tory organs were included, (by E. M. Wright), "Sweat Glands" (by J. H. Thaysen), "Lacrimal Gland" (by J. H. Thaysen) and "Transport Across Insect Excretory Epithelia" (by J. P. H. Maddrell) in Volume III and "Transport in Salivary and Salt Glands" (by J. A. Young and E. W. Van Lennep), "Gastric Secretion" (by T. E. Machen and J. G. Forte), "Transport Processes in the Exocrine Pan- creas" (by I. Schulz and K. J. Ullrich), and "Transport of Ions in Liver Cells" (by M. Claret) in Volume IVB. The publication in 1977 of the seminal paper of Silva and his colleagues on the mechanism of secretion of salt and water in the salt excreting gland of the dogfish (American Journal of Physiology 233, F298-F306, 1977) provided physiologists with their first real insight into the mechanisms underlying transepithelial fluid secretion, however, and, in the ensuing years, interest in the topic has exploded as is evidenced by the numerous international symposia on exocrine secretion held since that date.

This volume aims to give a comprehensive overview of the cellular mechanisms underlying the process of secretion in vertebrate, particularly mammalian, exocrine glands.