Academic Press The Paracellular Channel: Biology, Physiology, and Disease

The Paracellular Channel: Biology, Physiology and Disease serves as the first volume to offer a cohesive and unifying picture of the critical functions of paracellular channels (tight junctions) in different tissues. This new class of ion channel utilizes a completely different mechanism to create ion passage pathways across the cell junction. This volume outlines common principles that govern the organization and regulation of these diverse cellular structures, describes the methodology of study, and highlights the pathophysiologic consequence of abnormal structure and functions of the paracellular channels in human diseases. Coverage includes biochemical, biophysical, structural, physiologic analyses of the paracellular channel, and new technologies for recording and characterization. Offers integrated coverage of all key aspects of the paracellular channel, an understudied field that may hold key insights into some of the most mysterious aspects of physiology Targets different levels of expertise, spanning from graduate students, interns and clinical fellows, to seasoned researchers that study functions, regulation and dysfunctions of different tissue barriers Provides a cohesive and unifying picture that describes the critical functions of paracellular channels (tight junctions) in different tissues Review Presents a cohesive view of the fundamental principles and background information on diverse paracellular channels and their roles in human diseases From the Back Cover The Paracellular Channel serves as the first volume to offer a cohesive and unifying picture of the critical functions of paracellular channels (tight junctions) in different tissues. This new class of ion channel utilizes a completely different mechanism to create ion passage pathway across the cell junction, and while they share some similarities to the transcellular pathway they differ in key aspects and thus warrant independent study. This volume outlines common principles that govern the organization and regulation of these diverse cellular structures, describes the methodology of study, and highlights pathophysiologic consequence of abnormal structure and functions of the paracellular channels in human diseases. Paracellular channels are an understudied field that may hold key insights into some of the most mysterious aspects of molecular biology and physiology, and there are very few books currently on market tackling this topic. Coverage includes biochemical, biophysical, structural, physiologic analyses of the paracellular channel, as well as new technologies for its recording and characterization. Key Features: Offers integrated coverage of all key aspects of paracellular channel, an understudied field that may hold key insights into some of the most mysterious aspects of physiology. Targets different levels of expertise spanning from graduate students, interns and clinical fellows to seasoned researchers that study functions, regulation, and dysfunctions of different tissue barriers. Addresses functions, regulation, and dysfunctions of different tissue barriers. Provides cohesive and unifying picture that describes critical functions of paracellular channels (tight junctions) in different tissues, outlines common principles that govern the organization and regulation of these diverse cellular structures, described the methodology of studying these structures, and highlights pathophysiologic consequence of abnormal structure and functions of the paracellular channels in human diseases About the Author Jianghui Hou is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, at Washington University Saint Louis. Hou received his bachelors in biochemistry from Nanjing University, China. He received in Masters (with distinction) and Ph.D. from the University of Edinburgh. He did his postdoc in cell biology at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hou has been at Washington Universit