Aquaporins: Another piece in the osmotic puzzle

• Autores: Alleva, K.; Chara, O.; Amodeo, G.
• Año de publicación: 2012
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: FEBS Lett. 2012;586(19):2991-2999
• Materia: Aquaporin; Osmosis; Osmotic permeability; Phenomenological law; Water transport; aquaporin; bioinformatics; biophysics; brain edema; hydraulic permeability; lipid bilayer; membrane permeability; molecular interaction; nonhuman; nutrient uptake; osmosis; plant physiology; priority journal; protein function; protein structure; review; statistical analysis; transport kinetics; tumor growth; tumor vascularization; water transport; Animals; Aquaporins; Biophysical Phenomena; Cell Membrane Permeability; Computational Biology; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Models, Biological; Osmolar Concentration; Osmosis; Plant Proteins; Water
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales

Osmolarity not only plays a key role in celluar homeostasis but also challenges cell survival. The molecular understanding of osmosis has not yet been completely achieved, and the discovery of aquaporins as molecular entities involved in water transport has caused osmosis to again become a focus of research. The main questions that need to be answered are the mechanism underlying the osmotic permeability coefficients and the extent to which aquaporins change our understanding of osmosis. Here, attempts to answer these questions are discussed. Critical aspects of the state of the state of knowledge on osmosis, a topic that has been studied since 19th century, are reviewed and integrated with the available information provided by in vivo, in vitro and in silico approaches. © 2012 Federation of European Biochemical Societies. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.