The Living Cell as an Open Thermodynamic System: Bacteria and Irreversible Thermodynamics

Mercer, William

doi:10.21236/ad0726932

Cited by 11 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…In the cell, part of the energy is lost as heat outflow. Furthermore, when describing the modulation of metabolic pathways only the resultant biochemical molecules are known, without any information on the individual steps of biochemical and biophysical processes 6 . Therefore, a constructal approach has been introduced to analyse cell behaviour starting from the relationship between flows and irreversibility in cells 14 .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A temperature difference is required between cells and their environment, in order for them to survive 6 . For example, the related temperature gradient has been evaluated as approximately 0.4 °C cm −1 for Streptococcus faecalis 7 .…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The activity of the four multienzymatic complexes which constitute the respiratory chain coupled to the activity of the enzymatic complex known as ATP synthase are responsible for energy transformation. Enzyme activity is affected by the working condition related to environmental conditions 30 ; consequently, the control of the environmental conditions is useful for checking cell metabolism and, as consequence, the normal or cancer cell behaviour 6 22 .…”

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Constructal thermodynamics combined with infrared experiments to evaluate temperature differences in cells

Lucia

Grazzini

Montrucchio

et al. 2015

Sci Rep

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The aim of this work was to evaluate differences in energy flows between normal and immortalized cells when these distinct biological systems are exposed to environmental stimulation. These differences were considered using a constructal thermodynamic approach, and were subsequently verified experimentally. The application of constructal law to cell analysis led to the conclusion that temperature differences between cells with distinct behaviour can be amplified by interaction between cells and external fields. Experimental validation of the principle was carried out on two cellular models exposed to electromagnetic fields. By infrared thermography we were able to assess small changes in heat dissipation measured as a variation in cell internal energy. The experimental data thus obtained are in agreement with the theoretical calculation, because they show a different thermal dispersion pattern when normal and immortalized cells are exposed to electromagnetic fields. By using two methods that support and validate each other, we have demonstrated that the cell/environment interaction can be exploited to enhance cell behavior differences, in particular heat dissipation. We propose infrared thermography as a technique effective in discriminating distinct patterns of thermal dispersion and therefore able to distinguish a normal phenotype from a transformed one.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Constructal thermodynamics combined with infrared experiments to evaluate temperature differences in cells

Lucia

Grazzini

Montrucchio

et al. 2015

Sci Rep

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“…These values are obtained by using some numerical approximations and data from the literature [1,[8][9][10][11][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29]. Furthermore, the volume of a cell is approximated by a mean cell sphere with the diameter,…”

Section: The Thermodynamic Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

A thermodynamic approach to the ‘mitosis/apoptosis’ ratio in cancer

Lucia

Ponzetto

Deisboeck

2015

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications

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“…Indeed, in order to live, cells need temperature differences in relation to their environments; for example, for Streptococcus faecalis it results around 0.4 °C · cm −1 [133]. As a consequence of the experimental results we can state that [133][134][135][136][137][138][139][140][141][142][143][144][145][146][147][148]: a) This temperature difference depends on the cell lines; b) For any cell line, this temperature difference depends on the cells' metabolism.…”

Section: An Example Of This Thermodynamic Standpoint: Biomedicine Engmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Gouy-Stodola Theorem in Bioenergetic Analysis of Living Systems (Irreversibility in Bioenergetics of Living Systems)

Lucia

2014

Energies

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Thermodynamics studies the transformations of energy occurring in open systems. Living systems, with particular reference to cells, are complex systems in which energy transformations occur. Thermo-electro-chemical processes and transports occur across their border, the cells membranes. These processes take place with important differences between healthy and diseased states. In particular, different thermal and biochemical behaviours can be highlighted between these two states and they can be related to the energy transformations inside the living systems, in particular the metabolic behaviour. Moreover, living systems waste heat. This heat is the consequence of the internal irreversibility. Irreversibility is effectively studied by using the Gouy-Stodola theorem. Consequently, this approach can be introduced in the analysis of the states of living systems, in order to obtain a unifying approach to study them. Indeed, this approach allows us to consider living systems as black boxes and analyze only the inflows and outflows and their changes in relation to the modification of the environment, so information on the systems can be obtained by analyzing their behaviour in relation to the modification of external perturbations. This paper presents a review of the recent results obtained in the thermodynamics analysis of cell systems.

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The Living Cell as an Open Thermodynamic System: Bacteria and Irreversible Thermodynamics

Cited by 11 publications

References 11 publications

Constructal thermodynamics combined with infrared experiments to evaluate temperature differences in cells

Constructal thermodynamics combined with infrared experiments to evaluate temperature differences in cells

A thermodynamic approach to the ‘mitosis/apoptosis’ ratio in cancer

The Gouy-Stodola Theorem in Bioenergetic Analysis of Living Systems (Irreversibility in Bioenergetics of Living Systems)

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