The New Benchmark for Understanding the Latest Developments of Ion ChannelsIon channels control the electrical properties of neurons and cardiac cells, mediate the detection and response to sensory stimuli, and regulate the response to physical stimuli. They can often interact with the cellular environment due to their location at the surface of ce

The Textbook of Ion Channels is a set of three volumes providing a wide-ranging reference source on ion channels for students, instructors and researchers. Ion channels are membrane proteins that control the electrical properties of neurons and cardiac cells; mediate the detection and response to sensory stimuli like light, sound, odor, and taste; and regulate the response to physical stimuli like temperature and pressure. In non-excitable tissues, ion channels are instrumental for the regulation of basic salt balance that is critical for homeostasis. Ion channels are located at the surface membrane of cells, giving them the unique ability to communicate with the environment, as well as the membrane of intracellular organelles, allowing them to regulate internal homeostasis. Ion channels are fundamentally important for human health and diseases, and are important targets for pharmaceuticals in mental illness, heart disease, anesthesia, pain and other clinical applications. The modern methods used in their study are powerful and diverse, ranging from single ion-channel measurement techniques to models of ion channel diseases in animals, and human clinical trials for ion channel drugs. Volume I, Part 1 covers fundamental topics such as the basic principles of ion permeation and selectivity, voltage-dependent, ligand-dependent, and mechano-dependent ion channel activation mechanisms, the mechanisms for ion channel desensitization and inactivation, and basic ion channel pharmacology and inhibition. Volume I, Part 2 offers a practical guide of cardinal methods for researching ion channels, including heterologous expression and voltage-clamp and patch-clamp electrophysiology; isolation of native currents using patch clamping; modeling ion channel gating, structures, and its dynamics; crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy; fluorescence and paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy methods; and genetics approaches in model organisms. All three volumes give the reader an introduction to fundamental concepts needed to understand the mechanism of ion channels; a guide to the technical aspects of ion channel research; a modern guide to the properties of major ion channel families; and includes coverage of key examples of regulatory, physiological and disease roles for ion channels.

Ion channels are membrane proteins that act as gated pathways for the movement of ions across cell membranes. They play essential roles in the physiology of all cells. In recent years, an ever-increasing number of human and animal diseases have been found to result from defects in ion channel function. Most of these diseases arise from mutations in the genes encoding ion channel proteins, and they are now referred to as the channelopathies. Ion Channels and Disease provides an informative and up-to-date account of our present understanding of ion channels and the molecular basis of ion channel diseases. It includes a basic introduction to the relevant aspects of molecular biology and biophysics and a brief description of the principal methods used to study channelopathies. For each channel, the relationship between its molecular structure and its functional properties is discussed and ways in which genetic mutations produce the disease phenotype are considered. This book is intended for research workers and clinicians, as well as graduates and advanced undergraduates. The text is clear and lively and assumes little knowledge, yet it takes the reader to frontiers of what is currently known about this most exciting and medically important area of physiology. Introduces the relevant aspects of molecular biology and biophysics Describes the principal methods used to study channelopathies Considers single classes of ion channels with summaries of the physiological role, subunit composition, molecular structure and chromosomal location, plus the relationship between channel structure and function Looks at those diseases associated with defective channel structures and regulation, including mutations affecting channel function and to what extent this change in channel function can account for the clinical phenotype

The Textbook of Ion Channels is a set of three volumes that provides a wide-ranging reference source on ion channels for students, instructors and researchers. Ion channels are mem- brane proteins that control the electrical properties of neurons and cardiac cells; medi- ate the detection and response to sensory stimuli like light, sound, odor, and taste; and regulate the response to physical stimuli like temperature and pressure. In non-excitable tissues, ion channels are instrumental for the regulation of basic salt balance that is critical for homeostasis. Ion channels are located at the surface membrane of cells, giving them the unique ability to communicate with the environment, as well as the membrane of intracellular organelles, allowing them to regulate internal homeostasis. Ion channels are fundamentally important for human health and diseases, and are important targets for pharmaceuticals in mental illness, heart disease, anesthesia, pain and other clinical appli- cations. The modern methods used in their study are powerful and diverse, ranging from single ion-channel measurement techniques to models of ion channel diseases in animals, and human clinical trials for ion channel drugs. Volume III includes coverage of key ion channel regulators and their mechanisms, the role of ion channels working in concert in selected physiological systems, and examples of ion channel mutations and dysfunction in a selection of diseases. Chapters on ion channel regulation include splice variants, calcium–calmodulin regulation, regulation by G pro- teins, and lipids. A selection of ion channels in physiological systems includes ion chan- nels of the heart, ion channels in immune cells and their role in pancreatic beta cells and regulation of insulin secretion, and the role of channels in sperm and eggs. While disease mechanisms are integrated into the chapters of Volume II, Volume III offers special consid- eration of ion channels in epilepsy, cystic fibrosis and pain syndromes. All three volumes give the reader an introduction to fundamental concepts needed to understand the mechanism of ion channels, a guide to the technical aspects of ion channel research, offer a modern guide to the properties of major ion channel families, and includecoverage of key examples of regulatory, physiological, and disease roles for ion channels.

Knowledge of cardiac ion channels and transporters has advanced remarkably in the last two decades with the development of patch-clamp and molecular biological techniques. This textbook offers a comprehensive overview of structures and functions of ion channels and transporters in the heart. Readers are first introduced to the molecular biology and electrophysiology of all the important ion channels. After discussing their developmental changes, the pharmacology and pathophysiology of clinically-relevant ion channels are reviewed. Molecular aspects of the cardiac excitation-contraction coupling and intracellular Ca2+ regulation by ion transporters are also described. The book will be useful to electrophysiologists, cardiac physiologists and pharmacologists, and molecular biologists interested in ion channels at all levels. For research specialists, the book will provide a perspective of the field. The book can be used as a reference source for working scientists in the fields of ion channels, biophysics, cardiac electrophysiology, and pharmacology. It is aimed at graduate and medical students, designed for use as a textbook for graduate and medical courses.

Ion channels are crucial components of living cells. Situated in the cell's membranes. they allow particular ions to pass from one side of the membrane to the other. In recent years the patch clamp technique has allowed the activity of individual channels to be measured, and recombinant DNA technology has led to fascinating detail on their structure. Together, these technical advances have produced a great flowering of knowledge and understanding about the subject, itself leading to further breakthroughs in science and medicine. Ion Channels provides an introduction to this scientific endeavour. It emphasises the molecular structure of channels as determined by gene cloning technology. This knowledge illuminates discussions of the permeability and selectivity of channels, their gating and modulation, their responses to drugs and toxins and the human diseases caused when they do not function properly.

This three-volume textbook provides a wide-ranging reference source on ion channels for students, instructors, and researchers. They give an introduction to fundamental concepts, a guide to technical research aspects and the properties of major ion channel families, and coverage of key roles.