Springer-Verlag, Berlin, 2005, Pages: 321
Transmembrane signaling is one of the most significant cell biological events in the life and death of cells in general and lymphocytes in particular. Until recently biochemists and biophysicists were not accustomed to thinking of these processes from the side of a high number of complex biochemical events and an equally high number of physical changes at molecular and cellular levels at the same time. Both types of researchers were convinced that their findings are the most decisive, having higher importance than the findings of the other scientist population. Both casts were wrong. Life, even at cellular level, has a number of interacting physical and biochemical mechanisms, which finally build up the creation of an "excited" cell that will respond to particular signals from the outer or inner world.
Transmembrane signaling has many different forms and biochemical and biophysical details.However, the final outcome of transmembrane signaling at the cellular level elucidates some cellular functions, which are at the center of selfdefense, alimentation, escape reactions, etc. Transmembrane signaling can be studied best in the immune system, in particular in lymphocytes, the main cellular carriers of immune defense. The different chapters are independent studies, written by well-known experts in their particular fields. Some chapters include the authors’ very recent data, generalized, on the one hand, to provide understandable material for those who are interested in the field but not experts. On the other hand, the current data and novel efforts to unify biochemical and biophysical events in a physiological description provide interesting reading for experts as well.
Transmembrane signaling is one of the most significant cell biological events in the life and death of cells in general and lymphocytes in particular. Until recently biochemists and biophysicists were not accustomed to thinking of these processes from the side of a high number of complex biochemical events and an equally high number of physical changes at molecular and cellular levels at the same time. Both types of researchers were convinced that their findings are the most decisive, having higher importance than the findings of the other scientist population. Both casts were wrong. Life, even at cellular level, has a number of interacting physical and biochemical mechanisms, which finally build up the creation of an "excited" cell that will respond to particular signals from the outer or inner world.
Transmembrane signaling has many different forms and biochemical and biophysical details.However, the final outcome of transmembrane signaling at the cellular level elucidates some cellular functions, which are at the center of selfdefense, alimentation, escape reactions, etc. Transmembrane signaling can be studied best in the immune system, in particular in lymphocytes, the main cellular carriers of immune defense. The different chapters are independent studies, written by well-known experts in their particular fields. Some chapters include the authors’ very recent data, generalized, on the one hand, to provide understandable material for those who are interested in the field but not experts. On the other hand, the current data and novel efforts to unify biochemical and biophysical events in a physiological description provide interesting reading for experts as well.