Sinerik Ayrapetyan

The cell membrane (CM) has a higher permeability for water. Furthermore, because of the existence of special water channels (aqua pores) in CM, the water transports through the membrane take place much faster than predicted by simple osmotic diffusion. Therefore the environmental factors-induced osmotic gradients on membrane generated by extracellular and intracellular factors could have a transient characters and any factor- induced changes thermodynamic activity of membrane bathing aqua mediums could generate water fluxes through the CM. It has been shown that such transient water fluxes through CM have strong modulation effects on membrane conductive function as well as on the water influx- and efflux-induced cell hydration and dehydration leading to activation and inactivation of metabolic activity of cell, respectively. The cell hydration regulates the cell metabolic activity by two pathways: a) “folding” of intracellular macromolecules and b) surface-dependent regulation of the number of functional active protein molecules (enzymes, receptors, ionic channels) in CM. Therefore, the factor induced changes in cell hydration serve as gates for switching on the cell adaptive metabolic pathways restoring the initial hydrated state of cell. The dysfunction of intracellular signaling system controlling cell hydration serves as the primary reason for generation of cell pathology. By our study was shown that the age dependent dysfunction of α 3 Na/K ATPase-dependent signaling system is the main reason of the increase risk of generation of different medical disorders. It is suggested that the sensitivity of factor-induced tissue hydration could serve as a hallmark for health status of organism.