Intracellular pH: Its measurement, regulation, and utilization in cellular functions. Richard Nuccitelli and David W. Deamer, Editors. Kroc Foundation Series, Volume 15. Proceedings of a conference held at the Kroc Foundation, Santa Ynez Valley, California. New York: Alan R. Liss, Inc., 1982. 586 pages, $88
✍ Scribed by Michael C. Trachtenberg
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1983
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 139 KB
- Volume
- 9
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0360-4012
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Science as all human enterprises has its swings of fashion and rediscovery. The timeliness of rediscovery is in large part dependent on the available technology; the philosophy follows. As is clear from the current volume, the technology is at hand and empirical observations are fomenting exciting new perspectives on the significance of intracellular proton concentration (pHi). What we now interpret as pH research was begun as early as the 1870's, and by 1956 there was enough literature on the subject to warrant the comprehensive review by Caldwell. Nevertheless, the modern era of pH did not dawn until 1959, when the introduction of the weak acid DMO made it possible to begin to measure pHi. Since then, a variety of invasive and noninvasive techniques have been developed, microelectrodes being one of the most significant. Pioneering studies which reported fluctuations in pHi are being reinforced by data from more reliable techniques. The traditional prejudice that pHi does not change and must, therefore, be uninteresting, is being challenged; after all, similiar presumptions once discouraged investigation of both chloride movements and calcium gradients. It was considered unlikely that a process as vital and well regulated as pHi could be subject to shifts of short duration and high amplitude, yet that is the very character of episodic information signalling.
The editors of the present volume, Nuccitelli and Deamer, are to be complimented on several grounds; first, on their selection of contributors, although a few prominent names are strangely absent, and second, on the care with which the manuscripts are organized and illustrated. This volume represents a genuine attempt to transfer information and assist the development of pH research in other laboratories. This attitude is most evident in the chapters on technique.
The book focuses on cellular processes, deliberately excluding the literature on pHi and cell organelles. It is divided into three sections: the first deals with alternate means of measuring intracellular pH; the second details some current concepts of