The Sodium Pump: Structure Mechanism, Hormonal Control and its Role in Disease

by Ernst Bamberg, Wilhelm Schoner

Overview

The sodium of animal cell membranes converts the chemical energy obtained from the hydrolysis of adenosine 5' -triphosphate into a movement of the cations Na + and K + against an electrochemical gradient. The gradient is used subse­ quently as an energy source to drive the uptake of metabolic substrates in polar epithelial cells and to use it for purposes of communications in excitable cells. The biological importance of the sodium pump is evident from the fact that between 20-70% of the cell's metabolic energy is consumed for the pumping process. Moreover, the sodium pump is an important biological system involved in regulatory processes like the maintenance of the cells' and organism's water me­ tabolism. It is therefore understandable that special cellular demands are han­ dled better by special isoforms of the sodium pump, that the expression of the sodium pump and their isoforms is regulated by hormones as is the activity of the sodium pump via hormone-regulated protein kinases. Additionally, the sodium pump itself seems to be a receptor for a putative new group of hormones, the endogenous digitalis-like substances, which still have to be defined in most cases in their structure. This group of substances has its chemically well known coun­ terpart in steroids from plant and toad origin which are generally known as "car­ diac glycosides". They are in medical use since at least 200 years in medicine in the treatment of heart diseases.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783642725135
Publisher:	Springer-Verlag New York, LLC
Publication date:	02/14/2012
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 1994
Pages:	906
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.99(h) x 0.07(d)

Table of Contents

Gene organization, analysis of the sodium pump by molecular biology.- Molecular biology and structure of the calcium pump of sarcoplasmic reticulum.- Cell Biology.- Structure and reaction mechanisms of the sodium pump.- Electrogenicity and voltage dependence.- Spectroscopy as a tool in Na+/K+-ATPase.- Hormonal regulation of the sodium pump.- Endogenous digitalis-like substances.- Role of P-type ATPases in disease.- Author index.