The Discovery of Water Channels (Aquaporins)
The Discovery of Water Channels (Aquaporins)
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DOI：
10.1159/000463061
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发表时间：
2017-01-01
影响因子：
3.9
通讯作者：
Brown, Dennis
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Brown, Dennis
水进出细胞的运动是一个基本的生物过程，对生命至关重要。这种水分运动不仅调节单个细胞的活性，而且还负责许多器官系统的功能，并维持全身水分平衡。长期以来，人们一直怀疑水在生物细胞膜上的运动在某种程度上是由孔隙或通道增强或促进的，但识别这些通道的研究是漫长而乏味的。正如科学界经常出现的情况一样，水道的秘密最终在1992年被彼得·阿格雷和他在巴尔的摩约翰霍普金斯大学的同事偶然发现，他们当时正在研究红细胞膜蛋白。这个“第一个”水通道最初被命名为CHIP 28，现在被称为水通道蛋白1。阿格雷因这一发现获得了2003年的诺贝尔化学奖。目前已知哺乳动物中有13种水通道蛋白，分布在大多数组织中，但在低等生物和植物界中已经鉴定出更多。水通道蛋白参与的过程，如尿液浓缩和体液稳态，脑功能，腺体分泌，皮肤水合作用，男性生育能力，听力，视力和最重要的身体功能，可以想象，现在都在严格的科学审查。此外，水通道蛋白功能的缺陷与各种疾病状况和病理状态有关。这篇简短的综述将讨论它们的背景、发现和在选定的身体过程中的功能，特别是关注水合作用。(C)2017作者由S.发布Karger AG，巴塞尔
The movement of water into and out of cells is a fundamental biological process that is essential for life. Such water movement not only regulates the activity of individual cells but also is responsible for the functioning of many organ systems and for maintaining whole body water balance. It had long been suspected that water movement across biological cell membranes was in some way enhanced or facilitated by pores or channels, but the search to identify these channels was long and tedious. As is often the case in science, the secret of the water channel was eventually discovered by chance in 1992 by Peter Agre and his colleagues at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, who were working on red blood cell membrane proteins. This "first" water channel was originally named CHIP28 and is now known as aquaporin 1. Agre received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003 for this discovery. There are currently 13 known aquaporins in mammals, distributed in most tissues, but many more have been identified in lower organisms and in the plant kingdom. The involvement of aquaporins in processes such as urinary concentration and body fluid homeostasis, brain function, glandular secretion, skin hydration, male fertility, hearing, vision, and most important body functions that can be imagined are now all under intense scientific scrutiny. Moreover, defects in aquaporin function have been related to various disease conditions and pathological states. This brief review will discuss their background, discovery, and function in selected bodily processes, especially focusing on hydration. (C) 2017 The Author(s) Published by S. Karger AG, Basel