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  • Summer 2007 - Issue Number 67
  • Summer 2007 - Issue Number 67

Below are the feature articles from Physiology News Issue 67, Summer 2007.

To read the full articles please download the issue.

  • Features

Hyaluronan, the guardian of joints

Most body fluid cavities are sealed by a tight epithelium or mesothelium, whereas the joint lining is almost devoid of cell junctions, 20-30% of its interface being ‘naked’ intercellular matrix. How then is the hyaluronan-rich, lubricating synovial fluid retained? When intra-articular pressure is raised (e.g. by flexion), ultrafiltration of the tangled hyaluronan chains by the synovial extracellular matrix creates a dynamic, reversible concentration polarisation layer with sufficient osmotic pressure to oppose further fluid loss. In addition HA reflection also raises the fluid’s viscosity and reduces the energy-expensive replacement synthesis rate
  • Features

Multi-electrode array recording of gut pacemaker activity
  • Features

Adaptive responses to starvation in humans: important role for skeletal muscle PDK4

In humans, adaptations to fasting have evolved in order to survive periods of limited food resources and thus starvation. One important aspect of the adaptive response to fasting is a reduction in skeletal muscle carbohydrate utilization in order to spare glucose for those organs and tissues with an obligatory requirement for it (e.g. central nervous system). Muscle pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (PDK4), the enzyme that impairs the rate-limiting step in glucose oxidation, is of major importance in mediating the starvation-induced shift in metabolic fuel utilization
  • Features

Do birds experience visual illusions?

An object or motion we see does not always exist in the real world due to misinterpretations of retinal images by the brain. Where and how visual illusions occur are debated, and their elucidation would bridge psychology and neuronal activity

  • Features

Blood vessels signalling to neurones through nitric oxide

Most neuroscientists interested in information processing in the brain have synapses foremost in their minds, while conceding that glial cells situated nearby have important roles to play. Conceptually remote from this picture are the network of blood capillaries, but recent evidence suggests that, by releasing nitric oxide, they too influence neuronal function
  • Features

Parleys in phosphate
  • Features

Neuromechanical matching of central respiratory drive: a new principle of motor unit recruitment?
  • Features

Everything comes in cycles

Richard Naftalin considers problems relating to primary and secondary active transport
  • Features

Open access – views from the US and the UK

American Physiological Society Executive Director Martin Frank considers whether the scientific societies in the US can afford free access for all, and the UK Physiological Society’s Executive Committee responds to the ‘public access’ policies released into the public domain
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