Physiology News Magazine

Download this issue
  • Home
  • Winter 2007 - Issue Number 69
  • Winter 2007 - Issue Number 69

Below are the feature articles from Physiology News Issue 69, Winter 2007.

To read the full articles please download the issue.

  • Features

Tropomyosin mutations responsible for muscle weakness in inherited skeletal muscle diseases

Several mutations have been identified in tropomyosin, a key regulatory protein in muscle fibres. These mutations specifically modify muscle fibre function, and result in general muscle weakness accompanied with various inherited skeletal myopathies

  • Features

Brain rhythms, synaptic plasticity and sleep
  • Features

From lamprey swimming to human stepping: evolutionary conservation of longitudinally-propagated spinal activity
  • Features

The pattern of intracellular Ca2+ signal matters in epithelial secretion

Endocrine and exocrine cells respond to external cues by releasing different secretory molecules. Seung-Ryoung Jung and colleagues analyzed how ductal epithelia encode the external inputs into Ca2+ signals and decode them into specific types of secretion

  • Features

Muscle’s silent sensors

This is a story about measurement of position sense at the elbow joint. If I cannot see my arm, where is it? The object of our studies has been to understand the changes in position sense seen after exercise and during loading of the arm. Our choice of the elbow joint is simply out of convenience. Some recent experiments using the knee joint and the quadriceps muscle have shown that the principles we have considered at the elbow joint also applies at other joints.

  • Features

There goes the science bit…

A group of young scientists hunt for the evidence behind advertising claims

  • Features

Contribution of myoglobin facilitated O2 diffusion in respiring tissue
  • Features

An integrative approach to control of oxidative phosphorylation during exercise
  • Features

Colonic elongation activates an intrinsic reflex that underlies slow transit and accommodation

It is generally believed that after-hyperpolarizing neurons are the only intrinsic sensory neurons in the gut wall. Recently, Smith and colleagues have demonstrated that some synaptic interneurons in the large bowel are activated by circumferential stretch and generate an ongoing motor activity even when AH neurons are silent. Further studies suggest that some descending interneurons are also mechanosensory since they are activated by longitudinal stretch rather than circumferential stretch. In particular, these mechanosensory neurons, which are NOS positive, respond to colonic elongation by releasing nitric oxide to reduce activity in intrinsic peristaltic circuits. This later reflex promotes storage by reducing the transit rate of fecal pellets down the large bowel

  • Features

ATP synthesis during ischaemic muscle contractions
  • Features

β-adrenergic receptor desensitisation – a mechanism for post-exercise reductions in cardiac function
Menu Menu Search

Site search

Filter

Content Type