Cell Volume Regulation in Skate Erythrocytes

许多动物和植物细胞暴露于环境盐度变化中，从而导致这些细胞的正常体积发生变化。这些变化如果不加以纠正，就会扰乱甚至破坏正常的细胞功能。因此，细胞已经进化出了一种机制，通过这种机制，它们可以在这些干扰之后调整自己的体积。在过去的十年中，我们一直在研究一种细胞的体积调节机制。我们发现耐盐小鳐的红细胞（RBC）是研究细胞体积调节的一个很好的模型。在即将到来的拨款期间，我们计划确定细胞膜中的转运蛋白如何在稀释介质中进行体积膨胀后减少细胞体积。这将涉及识别过程中涉及的特定膜蛋白和“信号”机制，“告诉”蛋白质细胞体积太大，从而激活这些蛋白质。本研究获得的结果将对我们理解细胞体积调节的基本原理具有重要意义。此外，它们将有助于发现干扰的原因，以及为影响人体维持正常细胞体积能力的疾病开发新的治疗方法。

Many animal and plant cells are exposed to environmental salinity changes which cause alterations in the normal volumes of these cells. These changes, if they remained uncorrected, would disturb or even destroy normal cell function. Therefore, cells have evolved mechanisms by which they can adjust their volumes following these disturbances. During the past decade we have been investigating the mechanisms of volume regulation in one type of cell. We found that the red blood cell (RBC) of the salinity-tolerant little skate is a good model in which to study cell volume regulation. During the upcoming grant period we plan to determine how transport proteins in the cell's membrane operate to reduce cell volume after volume expansion in a dilute medium. This will involve identifying the specific membrane proteins involved in the process and the "signaling" mechanisms that "tell" the proteins that cell volume is too large, thereby activating these proteins. The results obtained in this study will be important to our understanding of the basic principles of cell volume regulation. In addition they will assist in discovering the causes of disturbances, as well as development of new treatments for diseases affecting the body's ability to maintain normal cell volume.