Cell Volume Regulation

Irena Levitan, PhD, is a Professor of Medicine and Bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She received her PhD in Biophysics and Neurobiology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1994 and completed postdoctoral training at the Medical College of Pennsylvania and Institute for Medicine and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research focuses on the biophysical properties of endothelial membranes and sub-membrane cytoskeleton. Specifically, the studies of her group, which combine computational and experimental biophysical approaches, provided the first comprehensive structural insights into cholesterol regulation of K+ channels. In 2012, she was named a Guyton Distinguished Lecturer “for her quantitative and biophysical work on cholesterol modulation of ion channels and how this can affect integrated organ function”. She and her group also discovered a paradoxical relationship between fluidity/deformability of the membrane and cell stiffness. In 2018, she was elected a Fellow of AIMBE for “outstanding contributions to our understanding of lipid-ion channel interactions, cellular biomechanics and vascular dysfunction under dyslipidemia”. Eric Delpire, PhD, is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Molecular Physiology and Biophysics in the Department of Anesthesiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN. He earned his PhD in Physiology from the University of Liège, Belgium. He completed postdoctoral training at Wright State University in Dayton, OH, and at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA. He is a recognized expert in cell volume regulation and ion transport mechanisms across biological membranes. He is credited with discovering the regulatory pathway involving WNK and SPAK/OSR1 kinases, as well as their interaction with cation-chloride cotransporters. Dr. Delpire has developed numerous genetically modified mouse models of cation-chloride transporters, kinases, and other regulatory molecules, including traditional global and conditional knockouts and knock-ins, as well as CRISPR/Cas9-generated knockout and knock-in models. These models are crucial tools for understanding how genetic mutations in these proteins affect various cellular functions and medical conditions such as hypertension, neurological disorders, and gastrointestinal diseases. For his groundbreaking research, Dr. Delpire has received numerous awards, including the Hugh Davson Distinguished Lectureship (2023) from the Cell and Molecular Physiology Section of the American Physiological Society. He has been elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Physiological Society. He has published over 230 peer-reviewed papers and several book chapters. Dr. Hector Rasgado-Flores teaches at Rosalind Franklin University, Chicago, USA

• Section 1. General Principles of Cell Volume Regulation1. Water Homeostasis and Cell Volume Maintenance and RegulationEric Delpire and Kenneth B. Gagnon 2. Search for Upstream Cell Volume Sensors: The Role of Plasma Membrane and Cytoplasmic HydrogelSergei N. Orlov, Aleksandra Shiyan, Francis Boudreault, Olga Ponomarchuk, and Ryszard Grygorczyk3. Cytoskeletal Contribution to Cell Stiffness Due to Osmotic Swelling; Extending the Donnan EquilibriumPei-Chuan Chao, Mettupalayam Sivaselvan, and Frederick Sachs 4. Membrane Stiffening in Osmotic Swelling: Analysis of Membrane Tension and Elastic ModulusManuela A.A. Ayee and Irena Levitan5. Molecular Identities and ATP Release Activities of Two Types of Volume-Regulatory Anion Channels, VSOR and Maxi-ClYasunobu Okada, Toshiaki Okada, Md. Rafiqul Islam, and Ravshan Z. Sabirov6. Molecular Biology and Physiology of LRRC8 Volume-Regulated Anion Channel (VRAC)James Osei-Owusu, Junhua Yang, Maria del Carmen Vitery, and Zhaozhu QiuSection 2. Regulation of Intracellular Chloride and Water Homeostasis7. Role of WNK Kinases in the Modulation of Cell VolumePaola de los Heros, Diana Pacheco-Alvarez, and Gerardo Gamba 8. Intracellular Macromolecules in Cell Volume Control and Methods of Their QuantificationMichael A. Model M.A. and Jonathan C. PetruccelliSection 3. Cell Volume Regulation in the Airways 9. Slippery When Wet: Airway Surface Liquid Homeostasis and Mucus HydrationMegan J. Webster and Robert Tarran 10. Physiology of the Gut: Experimental Models for Investigating Intestinal Fluid and Electrolyte TransportIsha Dey and Neil A. BradburySection 4. Cell Volume Regulation in the Brain11. Cell Volume Control in Healthy Brain and NeuropathologiesCorinne S. Wilson and Alexander A. Mongin 12. Cytotoxic Swelling of Sick Excitable Cells – Impaired Ion Omeostasis and Membrane Tension Homeostasis in Muscle and NeuronCatherine E. Morris