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Interrelations between Transcellular Ion Transport Function and Paracellular Tight Junctional Properties in Lung Epithelial and Endothelial Barriers
Sponsored by APS Respiration Section
Ion Channels Track

Various techniques have been applied over the years to characterize lung epithelial and endothelial barriers, including fluorescence based Ca signaling, Ussing chamber studies for active and passive ion transport properties, patch clamp studies of ion channels from isolated and in situ cells.  What is lacking to date in the lung transport physiology is the composite view of transcellular and paracellular ion transport occurring in epithelial and endothelial barriers.  One such technique has been recently reported for characterizing changes in cell volume and transcellular/paracellular ion movement in human airway epithelial cell layer culture (Danahay et al, AJP 290: L558, 2006).  Using similar approaches of bioimpedance techniques, we also recently reported preliminary data on apical and basolateral resistances and capacitances along with paracellular resistance of primary cultured rat lung alveolar epithelial cell monolayers (Kim et al., FASEB J. 20: A1440, 2006). In this proposed symposium, we would like to review the status of bioimpedance techniques and related techniques (e.g., noise analysis) that may be applicable for epithelial and endothelial cell layers in the lung in vitro and explore the feasibility of such techniques possibly extendable to in situ lungs.  Applicability in lung barriers in health and disease, and also the pros and cons for such studies may be addressed.