Mark Evans
Centre for Integrative Physiology, The University of Edinburgh

https://doi.org/10.36866/pn.88.17

6-8 December 2011, Edinburgh, UK

When the call for a Vascular and Smooth Muscle Themed Meeting was circulated to members of The Society, it seemed like a great opportunity to highlight an area that I consider to be of major importance to the field, and one which has received far too little attention over the last 30 years, since the first insight was provided by Casey van Breemen. I refer, of course, to the proposal that membrane-membrane junctions less than 100 nm across may provide nanodomains for regulated calcium signalling in smooth muscle. I called Graeme Nixon at the University of Aberdeen and the idea took shape – we would try to develop, through a symposium, the idea that a cell could not regulate processes as diverse as contraction, migration and gene expression without them. We submitted our proposal and, to our surprise at the time, it was accepted. But would the invited speakers be willing to travel to Scotland in December?

Either the ‘inclement’ Scottish weather of December 2010 had been forgotten, or there was some enthusiasm for the possibility of spending Christmas at a good hotel in Edinburgh, because all invitations were accepted with enthusiasm. Thankfully there was little snow, although a fairly significant arctic wind (hurricane, to be christened ‘Baw Bag’) did disrupt travel on the final day.

The Physiological Society’s Events Team seamlessly engaged with our symposium sketch and delivered what proved to be a very successful programme of events that centred on the historic Surgeon’s Hall. Daniel Defoe was an early visitor to the associated museums in 1726, and wrote in his Tour thro’ the whole Island of Great Britain that the ‘chamber of rarities’ contained many curious things too numerous for him to describe. I guess he may have said the same had he attended our symposium.

The symposium commenced on Tuesday 6 December, when Casey van Breemen introduced the concept of cellular nanospaces. The programme then developed more smoothly than we had anticipated, with all speakers falling into line as if through prior discussion. I introduced the evidence we had provided in support of Casey’s original proposal that nanojunctions may exist between the plasma membrane and the sarcoplasmic reticulum, that this was separated from a cytoplasmic space in which calcium promoted smooth-muscle contraction, and threw in a handful of lysosome-sarcoplasmic reticulum junctions for good measure. For their part, Mike Zhu provided the two pore segment channels, David Beech the TRP channels and Ian Parker the IP3 receptors. The stage was then set for Nicola Fameli to blind everybody with the maths that ‘proved’ that only nanospaces, and not microdomains, had the capacity to support regulated and compartmentalised calcium signalling.

On day two, John McCarron and Graeme Nixon escorted those gathered towards an appreciation of the plasticity of smooth muscle cells as they switch to a proliferative phenotype, ably assisted by Maria Gomez and Teresa Perez-Garcia. Casey van Breemen then rounded off the day by integrating the identified nanojunctions in a model that was generally accepted by most, if not all those present – as indicated by an important and final comment from Martin Bootman: “Smooth muscle is more complicated than cardiac muscle.” The chair surprisingly agreed, and we moved on to enjoy some fine dining in the Victorian splendour of the Playfair Hall.

The selected oral and poster presentations were of the highest standard and added to what was a vibrant meeting. The prize winners were as follows:

• Oral Communication Competition Winner: Junxi Wu, University of Strathclyde
• Runner up: Thomas Jepps, St George’s, University of London
• Poster Competition Winner:Lynn McKeown, University of Leeds
• Runner up: Oluseye Ogunbayo, University of Edinburgh

This symposium proved to be a great success with all those who attended and stimulated much discussion. I was therefore pleased to be informed that this topic was selected as a symposium for IUPS 2013, in Birmingham. We hope to see you there.