Article ID Journal Published Year Pages File Type
4498536 Journal of Theoretical Biology 2008 4 Pages PDF
Abstract
Our ancestors could not leave the salty ocean and move to brackish, or even fresh waters, without adequate regulation of their ECF sodium concentration and osmolality. Concentration of charges on cytoplasmic proteins or of intracellular phosphate buffers could not be altered, since this would compromise cell functioning. The remaining solution was to maintain the lowest ECF Na+ concentration effective in counteracting the average Donnan effect of charges on cytoplasmic proteins. When the optimal ECF sodium concentration had once become the reference point for osmoreceptors (controlling thirst and ADH secretion) and other regulatory mechanisms (secretion of renin/angiotensin/aldosterone, natriuretic factors), it made an important survival advantage that allowed spreading of animal life in fresh water and conquering of earth. The actual common value had to be a compromise that reduces the average osmotic burden on body cells to zero. Individual cells can reduce eventual residual osmotic forces on their membrane through altering cell volume by chloride shift, and by modulating the Na+K+-ATPase function.
Related Topics
Life Sciences Agricultural and Biological Sciences Agricultural and Biological Sciences (General)
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