Opening Address to the Symposium 'Water Channel Proteins: from their Discovery in 1985 in Romania to the 2003 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and their Implications in Molecular Medicine Systems'

摘要

The symposium will give an overview of the field of water channel proteins (WCPs). Firstly, a historical perspective of the development of this field, from the discovery of the first such protein in the red blood cell membrane to recently identified WCPs will be presented. Secondly, a description of the way in which solving the three dimensional structure of some WCPs lead to a better understanding of their function in molecular terms. Thirdly, recently identified roles of WCPs in selected systems (red blood cells, lens fibers, corneal endothelium, kidney proximal tubules, insect upper malpighian tubules, cardiac muscle) will be discussed. The methods (including original ones) and the interesting results obtained will be illustrated by studies on rabbit kidney proximal tubules, by expression of water channels in Xenopus oocytes, by freeze-fracture-labeling of AQPO, by applying electron and X-ray crystallography in studies of AQPO and AQP1, by a mathematical model of electrolyte and fluid transport across corneal endothelium, or by the use of monoclonal antibodies for immunological detection of cell membrane WCPs on animal and plant tissues. Finally, as selected examples of the pathological implications of WCPs the membrane defects affecting water permeability in epilepsy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy will be described.