Stephen L. Archer - Böcker

Potassium channels (K+) are membrane-spanning proteins which serve many important functions and are becoming a hotly debated topic in physiology. K+ channels determine or modulate many functions of vascular smooth muscle, endothelial and inflammatory cells, and thus are central to regulation of arterial tone and control of cell proliferation. They are also promising targets for antihypertensive treatments with drugs which open and close specific types of K+ channels, making for an active field of research. With their ability to control vascular tone, voltage-gated K+ channels play a significant role in both pulmonary and systemic hypertension as well as in cardiac arrhythmias. This book highlights the latest discoveries by leading researchers pertaining to the role of K+ channels in the heart and blood vessels in normal physiology and a variety of disease states.

Birth is a sudden, traumatic transition of environments. Once the placental oxygen supply ceases, the foetus has only minutes to establish pulmonary oxygen transport, which requires not only inflation of the lungs, but also sudden and sustained changes in the lung circulation. Not long ago, research in this field was largely restricted to morphology and physiology. Now the powerful new tools of cellular and molecular biology have begun toshed light on the physiological processes in the developing lung and its supporting vasculature. In 22 chapters, three main sections explore lung growth and development, vascular cell growth and differentiation, and the mechanisms of hemodynamic control in the neonate; extensive illustrations give a comprehensive picture of pulmonary circulatory development. Factors controlling vasculogenesis and angiogenesis are described by the scientists who pioneered the field. Similarly, the intracellular signaling cascades that determine proliferation or growth inhibition of fibroblasts, smooth muscle cells, and endothelial cells are also presented in an understandable manner. Finally, the role ofsubstances, such as nitric oxide and endothelin, that control the hemodynamics of the fetal and neonatal circulations are discussed in detail, particularly in relation to the changes occurring at birth.This book will inform basic scientists as well as the clinician and student, and should be of particular interest to pediatric cardiologists, pulmonary medicine physicians, and vascular biologists.

This publication is unique and ground breaking because no previous volume has focused on the mechanisms by which nitric oxide and oxygen radicals are involved in vascular pathophysiology. This book provides a current review of the use of nitric oxide to treat pulmonary hypertension, whether idiopathic or secondary to congenital heart disease. In this respect, it should be read by pediatric cardiologists. Respiratory care physicians and intensive-care specialists who study and treat ARDS or IRDS (adult or infant respiratory distress syndromes) would also benefit from this publication. This book is of particular interest to physiologists concerned with vascular biology or with the activity of nitric oxide and oxygen radicals.