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ABSTRACT: In 1889 Abderhalden reported his discovery that there is no (or as shown later, little) sodium ion (Na+) in human red blood cells even though these cells live in a medium rich in Na+. History shows that all major theories of the living cell are built around this basic phenomenon seen in all the living cells that have been carefully examined. One of these theories has been steadily evolving but is yet-to-be widely known. Named the association-induction hypothesis (AIH), it has been presented thus far in four books dated 1962, 1984, 1992 and 2001 respectively. In this theory, the low Na+ in living cells originates from (i) an above-normal molecule-to-molecule interaction among the bulk-phase cell water molecules, in consequence of (ii) their (self-propagating) polarization-orientation by the backbone NHCO groups of (fully-extended) cell protein(s), when (iii) the protein(s) involved is under the control of the electron-withdrawing cardinal adsorbent (EWC), ATP. A mature human red blood cell (rbc) has no nucleus, nor other organelle. 64% of the rbc is water; 35% belongs to a single protein, hemoglobin (Hb). This twofold simplicity allows the concoction of an ultra-simple model (USM) of the red blood cell's cytoplasmic protoplasm, which comprises almost entirely of hemoglobin, water, K+ and ATP. Only in the USM, the ATP has been replaced by an artificial but theoretically authentic EWC, H+ (given as HCl). To test the theory with the aid of the USM, we filled dialysis sacs with a 40% solution of pure (ferri-) hemoglobin followed by incubating the sacs till equilibrium in solutions containing different amounts of HCI (including zero) but a constant (low) concentration of NaCl. We then determined the equilibrium ratio of the Na+ concentration inside the sac over that in the solution outside and refer to this ratio as qNaCl. When no H+ was added, the qNaCl stayed at unity as predicted by the theory. More important (and also predicted by the theory,) when the right amount of H+ had been added, qNaCl fell to the 0.1- 0.3 range found in living red blood (and other) cells. These and other findings presented confirm the AIH's theory of life at the most basic level: in the resting living state, microscopic, or nano-protoplasm, is the ultimate physical basis of life. (See Post Script on page 111.)
Physiological chemistry and physics and medical NMR 01/2008; 40:89-113.
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ABSTRACT: Fully-hydrated Ehrlich carcinoma ascites cells under the protective action of DMSO fully survived exposure to near-absolute zero temperature provided by liquid helium.
Physiological chemistry and physics and medical NMR 01/2008; 40:115-8.
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ABSTRACT: 1. The effluxes of labeled Na+, D-arabinose, and sucrose from normal muscle and muscle poisoned with low concentrations of iodoacetate were studied. The procedure involved repeated loading with isotope, followed by washing of the same muscle while still normal and at different states of dying. 2. The rates of Na+ efflux in both the fast and slow fraction remained either quite constant or showed some unpredictable, minor fluctuations. This was true for both Na+ and the two sugars studied, confirming earlier conclusions that the steady levels of these solutes were not maintained by pumps. 3. In all cases studied, the efflux curves showed at least two fractions. It is the fast-exchanging fraction that steadily and consistently increased in magnitude as the muscles were dying, until finally the concentration of solute in this fraction reached and sometimes surpassed the labeled solute concentrations in the original labeled solutions in which the muscles were equilibrated. The slow fractions showed only a transient increase or none at all. These observations show that it is the fast fraction that represents solute dissolved in cell water and rate-limited by passage through the cell surface and that the partial exclusion of Na+ and the sugars have a unitary cause—a reduced solubility in the cell water which in the presence of ATP exists in the state of polarized multilayers.
Journal of Cellular Physiology 02/1981; 106(3):385 - 398. · 3.87 Impact Factor
