The response of lipid bilayers to osmotic stress is an important part of cellular function. Recent experimental studies showed that when cell-sized giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) are exposed to hypotonic media, they respond to the osmotic assault by undergoing a cyclical sequence of swelling and bursting events, coupled to the membrane's compositional degrees of freedom. Here, we establish a...

ells that passively swell and contract with changes in osmolarity are the key to detecting those changes, say Most cells have at least two mechanisms for maintaining homeostasis in response to changes in salt concentrations. Without these mechanisms, osmotic forces take over: more water and thus less salt outside cells leads water to flood into a cell. But this swelling doesn't occur in most ce...

Cell volume and dry mass are typically correlated. However, in this issue, Zlotek-Zlotkiewicz et al. (2015. J. Cell Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201505056) and Son et al. (2015. J. Cell Biol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201505058) use new live-cell techniques to show that entry to mitosis coincides with rapid cell swelling, which is reversed before division.

Abstract This study was to evaluate the engineering properties of cement stabilized expansive clay soils. considered an experimental program determine Atterberg limits, free swell index, compaction characteristics, California Bearing Ratio (CBR), and mixtures. The collected soils were using 10, 12, 14, 16 % by weight. laboratory results showed that have low shear strength high swelling potentia...

Using patch-clamp and calcium imaging techniques, we characterized the effects of ATP and histamine on human keratinocytes. In the HaCaT cell line, both receptor agonists induced a transient elevation of [Ca2+]i in a Ca(2+)-free medium followed by a secondary [Ca2+]i rise upon Ca2+ readmission due to store-operated calcium entry (SOCE). In voltage-clamped cells, agonists activated two kinetical...

The hypothesis that cellular hypertrophy in congestive heart failure (CHF) modulates mechanosensitive (ie, swelling- or stretch-activated) anion channels was tested. Digital video microscopy and amphotericin-perforated-patch voltage clamp were used to measure cell volume and ion currents in ventricular myocytes isolated from normal dogs and dogs with rapid ventricular pacing-induced CHF. In nor...

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometry (InSAR), using data from the European Space Agency satellites ERS1 and ERS2, is being used to image, survey and map surface movement of the London region. Local and regional movement due to shrink and swell of the London Clay geology, tunnelling, and possibly ground water abstraction has been investigated here for the first time by InSAR. Cyclic ann...