Complexity Digest 2002.28 - 15.01
15-Jul-2002
Traveling Metabolic Waves In Oxidant Release By Living
Neutrophils, PNAS
Excerpts: Cell metabolism
self-organizes into two types of dissipative structures: chemical oscillations
and traveling metabolic waves. In the present study we test the hypothesis
that traveling NAD(P)H waves within neutrophils are associated spatially and
temporally with the release of reactive oxygen metabolites (ROMs). (...)
Propagating NAD(P)H waves allow neutrophils to specifically deliver substrate
to the lamellipodium at high concentrations, thus facilitating the local and
periodic release of ROMs in the direction of cell movement and/or a
target.