Cell physiology
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Stiffness Sensing by Cells Open
Physical stimuli are essential for the function of eukaryotic cells, and changes in physical signals are important elements in normal tissue development as well as in disease initiation and progression. The complexity of physical stimuli a…
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Voltage‐gated calcium channels and their auxiliary subunits: physiology and pathophysiology and pharmacology Open
Voltage‐gated calcium channels are essential players in many physiological processes in excitable cells. There are three main subdivisions of calcium channel, defined by the pore‐forming α 1 subunit, the Ca V 1, Ca V 2 and Ca V 3 channels.…
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Exosomes: Fundamental Biology and Roles in Cardiovascular Physiology Open
Exosomes are nanosized membrane particles that are secreted by cells that transmit information from cell to cell. The information within exosomes prominently includes their protein and RNA payloads. Exosomal microRNAs in particular can pot…
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Fundamentals of Cellular Calcium Signaling: A Primer Open
Ionized calcium (Ca2+) is the most versatile cellular messenger. All cells use Ca2+ signals to regulate their activities in response to extrinsic and intrinsic stimuli. Alterations in cellular Ca2+ signaling and/or Ca2+ homeostasis can sub…
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Impact of Membrane Phospholipid Alterations in Escherichia coli on Cellular Function and Bacterial Stress Adaptation Open
Bacteria have evolved multiple strategies to sense and rapidly adapt to challenging and ever-changing environmental conditions. The ability to alter membrane lipid composition, a key component of the cellular envelope, is crucial for bacte…
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Cardiac transmembrane ion channels and action potentials: cellular physiology and arrhythmogenic behavior Open
Cardiac arrhythmias are among the leading causes of mortality. They often arise from alterations in the electrophysiological properties of cardiac cells and their underlying ionic mechanisms. It is therefore critical to further unravel the…
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Intracellular cAMP Sensor EPAC: Physiology, Pathophysiology, and Therapeutics Development Open
This review focuses on one family of the known cAMP receptors, the exchange proteins directly activated by cAMP (EPACs), also known as the cAMP-regulated guanine nucleotide exchange factors (cAMP-GEFs). Although EPAC proteins are fairly ne…
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A Mighty “Protein Extractor” of the Cell: Structure and Function of the p97/CDC48 ATPase Open
p97/VCP (known as Cdc48 in S. cerevisiae or TER94 in Drosophila) is one of the most abundant cytosolic ATPases. It is highly conserved from archaebacteria to eukaryotes. In conjunction with a large number of cofactors and adaptors, it coup…
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Editorial: Impact of Lipid Peroxidation on the Physiology and Pathophysiology of Cell Membranes Open
EDITORIAL article Front. Physiol., 22 September 2016Sec. Membrane Physiology and Membrane Biophysics Volume 7 - 2016 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2016.00423
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Cell growth dilutes the cell cycle inhibitor Rb to trigger cell division Open
A cell size sensor Efforts continue to uncover the long-sought mechanism by which cells coordinate growth and cell division to maintain a constant size. Zatulovskiy et al. propose that human cells sense the concentration of the retinoblast…
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Mitochondrial calcium uptake in organ physiology: from molecular mechanism to animal models Open
Mitochondrial Ca2+ is involved in heterogeneous functions, ranging from the control of metabolism and ATP production to the regulation of cell death. In addition, mitochondrial Ca2+ uptake contributes to cytosolic [Ca2+] shaping thus impin…
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Cell size sensing in animal cells coordinates anabolic growth rates and cell cycle progression to maintain cell size uniformity Open
Cell size uniformity in healthy tissues suggests that control mechanisms might coordinate cell growth and division. We derived a method to assay whether cellular growth rates depend on cell size, by monitoring how variance in size changes …
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Reactive Oxygen Species and NOX Enzymes Are Emerging as Key Players in Cutaneous Wound Repair Open
Our understanding of the role of oxygen in cell physiology has evolved from its long-recognized importance as an essential factor in oxidative metabolism to its recognition as an important player in cell signaling. With regard to the latte…
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The Complex Interplay between Mitochondria, ROS and Entire Cellular Metabolism Open
Besides their main function for energy production in form of ATP in processes of oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos), mitochondria perform many other important cellular functions and participate in various physiological processes that are c…
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Biomolecular condensates in neurodegeneration and cancer Open
The intracellular environment is partitioned into functionally distinct compartments containing specific sets of molecules and reactions. Biomolecular condensates, also referred to as membrane‐less organelles, are diverse and abundant cell…
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The Role of Pontin and Reptin in Cellular Physiology and Cancer Etiology Open
Pontin (RUVBL1, TIP49, TIP49a, Rvb1) and Reptin (RUVBL2, TIP48, TIP49b, Rvb2) are highly conserved ATPases of the AAA+ (ATPases Associated with various cellular Activities) superfamily and are involved in various cellular processes that ar…
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Cellular senescence in normal physiology Open
Long associated with aging, senescent cells can promote health and have physiological roles
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Lysosomal LAMP proteins regulate lysosomal pH by direct inhibition of the TMEM175 channel Open
Maintaining a highly acidic lysosomal pH is central to cellular physiology. Here, we use functional proteomics, single-particle cryo-EM, electrophysiology, and in vivo imaging to unravel a key biological function of human lysosome-associat…
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Fluid shear stress modulation of hepatocyte-like cell function Open
Freshly isolated human adult hepatocytes are considered to be the gold standard tool for in vitro studies. However, primary hepatocyte scarcity, cell cycle arrest and the rapid loss of cell phenotype limit their widespread deployment. Huma…
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Lipidomic atlas of mammalian cell membranes reveals hierarchical variation induced by culture conditions, subcellular membranes, and cell lineages Open
Lipid membranes are ubiquitous biological organizers, required for structural and functional compartmentalization of the cell and sub-cellular organelles.
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Calcium Signaling in ß-cell Physiology and Pathology: A Revisit Open
Pancreatic beta (β) cell dysfunction results in compromised insulin release and, thus, failed regulation of blood glucose levels. This forms the backbone of the development of diabetes mellitus (DM), a disease that affects a significant po…
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The Emerging and Diverse Roles of Bis(monoacylglycero) Phosphate Lipids in Cellular Physiology and Disease Open
Although understudied relative to many phospholipids, accumulating evidence suggests that bis(monoacylglycero)phosphate (BMP) is an important class of regulatory lipid that plays key roles in lysosomal integrity and function. BMPs are rare…
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Modulation of Drosophila post-feeding physiology and behavior by the neuropeptide leucokinin Open
Behavior and physiology are orchestrated by neuropeptides acting as central neuromodulators and circulating hormones. An outstanding question is how these neuropeptides function to coordinate complex and competing behaviors. In Drosophila,…
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Conventional and emerging roles of the energy sensor Snf1/AMPK in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Open
All proliferating cells need to match metabolism, growth and cell cycle progression with nutrient availability to guarantee cell viability in spite of a changing environment. In yeast, a signaling pathway centered on the effector kinase Sn…
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Cell size homeostasis: Metabolic control of growth and cell division Open
Joint regulation of growth rate and cell division rate determines cell size. Here we discuss how animal cells achieve cell size homeostasis potentially involving multiple signaling pathways converging at metabolic regulation of growth rate…
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Spatial and temporal signal processing and decision making by MAPK pathways Open
Mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways are conserved from yeast to man and regulate a variety of cellular processes, including proliferation and differentiation. Recent developments show how MAPK pathways perform exquisite spatia…
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Tumor-on-a-chip: a microfluidic model to study cell response to environmental gradients Open
Limited blood supply and rapid tumor metabolism within solid tumors leads to nutrient starvation, waste product accumulation and the generation of pH gradients across the tumor mass.
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The cell biology of quiescent yeast – a diversity of individual scenarios Open
Most cells, from unicellular to complex organisms, spend part of their life in quiescence, a temporary non-proliferating state. Although central for a variety of essential processes including tissue homeostasis, development and aging, quie…
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Membrane Melatonin Receptors Activated Cell Signaling in Physiology and Disease Open
The pineal hormone melatonin has attracted great scientific interest since its discovery in 1958. Despite the enormous number of basic and clinical studies the exact role of melatonin in respect to human physiology remains elusive. In huma…
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Single-Cell Physiology Open
Single-cell techniques have a long history of unveiling fundamental paradigms in biology. Recent improvements in the throughput, resolution, and availability of microfluidics, computational power, and genetically encoded fluorescence have …