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The XXXV International
Congress of Physiological Sciences in San Diego was the second congress
which I attended. The first one had been eight years ago in St. Petersburg,
but, I think, it is hardly reasonable to compare these meetings. Certainly,
St. Petersburg is a very beautiful city with great intellectual potency,
referred by many scientists as the so called “capitol” of Russian
physiology. However, there were rather hard times in Russia in 1997, both
politically and economically. That could not but reflect on the work of the
XXXIII IUPS Congress. On the contrary, the organization of the IUPS congress
in San Diego was, in my opinion, excellent in many respects.
It was a good idea, I think, to combine the EB 2005 and the IUPS Congresses
and to rent the beautiful building, the San Diego Convention Center. This
made it possible to locate all functions of the meetings (lectures,
symposiums, featured topics, and poster sessions), in one place and to
supply them with efficient, modern equipment.
I was deeply impressed by the hospitality of the organizing staff of the
congress. Every question for help was readily answered. I felt I was
welcomed, both in the congress, and in the USA.
First of all, I am thankful, of course, to the authorities of the IUPS
Travel Award Program. The financial support, I received, made it possible
for me to attend the congress. And I am thankful, also, to Sarah George,
Meetings Assistant of the American Physiological Society. She helped me with
my accommodations in San Diego which were rather comfortable and modestly
priced. This was vital for me.
Surely, the most important part of the congress was the science. In October
2004, Professor Ronaldo P. Ferraris of (the New Jersey Medical School,
Newark), having been informed about my previous published works, kindly
proposed that I participate in the XXXV IUPS Congress and take part in the
Featured Topic “The Nature of Intestinal Adaptations: Cellular Diversity and
Versatility.” This occurred to be a right choice for me and L. V. Gromova,
my colleague and a co-author. We presented our report “Short-term Adaptation
of the Gut to High Glucose Loads” as poster and oral presentations. In
particular, we have shown that under normal conditions, the short-term of
adaptation of glucose absorption in the small intestine is mainly achieved
due to high efficiency of the glucose active transport (rather than the
facilitated diffusion via GLUT2), and adequate regulation of
gastrointestinal motility including “ileal brake” mechanism. It was very
pleasant for us to see that some of our results and assumptions were in good
agreement with the modern views presented by E. M. Wright (USA), in his
excellent report ”Glucose Sensors and Transporters in the Small Intestine.”
C. Cheeseman had reported very interesting data concerning dietary
regulation of two novel facilitated glucose transporter proteins in the rat
intestine. The other speakers on the Featured Topics (T.J. McWhorter, D.M.
Casirola, M. Merit, and I. Sukhotnik), also introduced quite useful
information about various aspects of intestinal adaptation.
It was very interesting for me to meet once again those physiologists whom I
got to know in St. Petersburg eight years ago: C. Cheeseman (Canada), R.K.
Buddington (USA), and J.M. Planas (Spain). This time we met during the
Poster Session as old friends, and we had (especially with Cheeseman),
rather long discussions. I am sure that these personal contacts will be
useful in our future research, because the fresh information exchange is one
of the important parts of scientific work.
Needless to say, I have unforgettable impressions from this beautiful place,
San Diego, and, of course, from the Philharmonic Concert.
Unfortunately, only a few participants of the XXXV IUPS Congress arrived
from Russia. The main reason, I think, is quite clear: a rather long
distance. It was most valuable, that two representatives of the I.P. Pavlov
Institute of Physiology RAS in St. Petersburg (Yu. P. Gerasimenko and
myself), attended the Congress. We have brought with us to the Institute the
CDs with the abstracts and other materials of the congress. And we reported
to our colleagues our impressions of the congress.
Unforgettable was my brief visit to J.R. Pappenheimer in Cambridge on my way
to San Diego. I got to know him ten years ago, when he responded to a letter
with a reprint of our paper published in Doklady RAN in 1995. Since then, we
have corresponded via letters and Emails and discussed many disputable
problems of the membrane digestion and absorption of nutrients. Being 90
years old, he has preserved a splendid intellect, a vital interest in life
(especially in science), and a good humor. It is my good luck to be
acquainted with this outstanding scientist on the world scale. And I was
happy to meet him.
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