1. WELCOME TO CELL PHYSIOLOGY

2. What is cell physiology- and how does it differ from cell biology??

3. Some themes repeated throughout the course… Compartmentalization- There is an inside and an outside to things- and cells make energy, use energy, and defend themselves by taking advantage of this Statistical Probability- Things happen in the cell when particles bump into each other- cells cheat by making it more or less likely they will bump into each other to speed things up or slow them down enzymes nerve transmission

4. Unitary Structure- Things are put together by linking components, and components are constantly recycled Division of Labor- molecules, proteins, cells, tissues, systems have specialized functions to do specific jobs-but may also play several roles simultaneously glutamate as amino acid and neurotransmitter leptin in adiposity, sexual development, immunity, angiogenesis, etc.

5. Cells have a history- Cells do what they do because that is how they evolved-not necessarily because it is the most efficient way to do things

6. Most of what I tell you will not be true within 5 years- some won’t be true for more than a few weeks! -Cell physiology is arguably the most rapidly advancing field in science-with thousands of articles published each week (in my own field of leptin-over 4500 papers published since mid 1994). So…your book, although it has a publication date of 2000-is already out of date. We will supplement your book with brand-spanking new data. Why bother??? Science is a process-and it is very useful to know the process- this course will give you the tools to understand (at some level) any paper in cell physiology-and that is very useful!

7. A Cool Cell Physiology Story to get you started… p53 is a tumor suppressor gene, that codes for a protein that will be stabilized by damaged DNA. It then starts a cascade that will prevent the cell from dividing (and in some cases subsequently kill the cell) Fig. 13-36 p. 532 Why not make LOTS OF p53 all the time?

8. Tyner et al., (Nature 415: 45-53; 2002) 15 authors! Made a mutant mouse that makes lots of p53-all the time. Is it resistant to getting tumors? p53 ++ (wild type) median lifespan of 118 weeks, max 164 weeks, >45% of individuals get cancer p53 +m (mutant) median lifespan of 96 weeks, max 136 weeks, <6% of individuals get cancer

9. Mutant mice age prematurely, with lordokyphosis (hunched back), loss of weight, and degradation of ability to make RBCs.

10. Mutant mice also can’t grow hair well (consistent with premature aging)

11. The mutant mice also ‘look old’ Wild Type Mutants