The effects of intracellular acidification, osmotic shrinkage and ss-adrenergic stimulation on sodium transport across the membrane of lamprey (Lampetra fluviatilis) erythrocytes were investigated. Unidirectional ouabain-insensitive sodium flux, measured using radioactive 22Na, was increased markedly by intracellular acidification, to a lesser extent by osmotic shrinkage and only modestly by ss...

During exocytosis, vesicles in secretory cells fuse with the cellular membrane and release their contents in a Ca2+-dependent process. Release occurs initially through a fusion pore, and its rate is limited by the dissociation of the matrix-associated contents. To determine whether this dissociation is promoted by osmotic forces, we have examined the effects of elevated osmotic pressure on rele...

Protective osmolytes are chemical compounds that shift the protein folding/unfolding equilibrium toward the folded state under osmotic stresses. The most widely considered protection mechanism assumes that osmolytes are depleted from the protein's first solvation shell, leading to entropic stabilization of the folded state. However, recent theoretical and experimental studies suggest that prote...

The interaction force between functionalized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) plays an important role in the fabrication of self-assembled and highly ordered SWNT arrays for a wide range of potential applications. Here, we measured interaction force between SWNTs encapsulated with polymerized surfactant monolayer (p-SWNTs). The balance between the repulsion between p-SWNTs and the osmotic...

Measurements of osmotic equilibrium of colloidal solutions, ranging from 170,000 to 20,000 in molecular weight, show that the negative buoyancy of the solute molecules is additive to the osmotic pressure. Seen together with earlier measurements of positive buoyancy of oil suspensions, these data confirm that the osmotic interaction between solute and solvent at equilibrium is purely a force-cou...

For ion channel gating, the appearance of two distinct conformational states and the discrete transitions between them are essential, and therefore of crucial importance to all living organisms. We show that the physical interplay between two structural elements that are commonly present in bacterial mechanosensitive channels--namely, a charged vestibule and a hydrophobic constriction--creates ...

UNLABELLED The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa can infect almost any site in the body but most often targets epithelial cell-lined tissues such as the airways, skin, and the cornea of the eye. A common predisposing factor is cystic fibrosis (CF), caused by defects in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane-conductance regulator (CFTR). Previously, we showed that when P. aeruginosa enter...