Regulatory Volume Decrease and P Receptor Signaling in Fish Cells: Mechanisms, Physiology, and Modeling Approaches

CHARA O, ESPELT MV, KRUMSCHNABEL G . AND SCHWARZBAUM, PJ.

JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ZOOLOGY PART A-ECOLOGICAL GENETICS AND PHYSIOLOGY

WILEY-LISS, DIV JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Lugar: New York; Año: 2011 vol. 313 p. 175 - 202

1932-5223

For animal cell plasma membranes, the permeability of water is much higher than that of ions andother solutes, and exposure to hyposmotic conditions almost invariably causes rapid water influxand cell swelling. In this situation, cells deploy regulatory mechanisms to preserve membraneintegrity and avoid lysis. The phenomenon of regulatory volume decrease, the partial or fullrestoration of cell volume following cell swelling, is well-studied in mammals, with uncountableinvestigations yielding details on the signaling network and the effector mechanisms involved inthe process. In comparison, cells from other vertebrates and from invertebrates received littleattention, despite of the fact that e.g. fish cells could present rewarding model systems given thediversity in ecology and lifestyle of this animal group that may be reflected by an equal diversity ofphysiological adaptive mechanisms, including those related to cell volume regulation. In thisreview, we therefore present an overview on the most relevant aspects known on hypotonicvolume regulation presently known in fish, summarizing transporters and signaling pathwaysdescribed so far, and then focus on an aspect we have particularly studied over the past years usingfish cell models, i.e. the role of extracellular nucleotides in mediating cell volume recovery ofswollen cells. We, furthermore, present diverse modeling approaches developed on the basis ofdata derived from studies with fish and other models and discuss their potential use for gaininginsight into the theoretical framework of volume regulation.