Pub Date : 2008-05-30DOI: 10.2174/1874196700801010009
D. Gatherer
Walter Elsasser (1904-1991), an eminent quantum physicist and geophysicist, was also active in theoretical biology over a 35-year period from the early 1950s to the late 1980s. Although increasingly estranged from the biological establishment during the last fifteen years of his life, Elsasser’s central concern with complexity has resulted in a revival of interest in his theories over the last decade, particularly among those who see biology from a systems holist rather than a molecular reductionist viewpoint. This article reviews the development of Elsasser’s thought from his early opposition to genetic deter- minism, through the radical epistemology of his middle period, to his later more broadly philosophical ideas. After a summary of existing responses to Elsasser in the literature, a fresh critique and assessment of his work is presented, with particu- lar attention to the implications for systems biology. It is concluded that although Elsasser drew some conclusions from his epistemology that are not justifiable in the light of subsequent research, his insistence on the existence of biotonic phenomena in biology, irreducible (either at present, or in principle) to physics, is correct. Ironically, the most significant biotonic princi- ple is one which Elsasser largely ignored in his own work, that of Natural Selection.
Walter Elsasser(1904-1991)是一位杰出的量子物理学家和地球物理学家，在20世纪50年代初至80年代末的35年间，他也活跃在理论生物学领域。尽管在他生命的最后15年里，他与生物学学界的关系日益疏远，但Elsasser对复杂性的核心关注导致了他的理论在过去十年中重新引起了人们的兴趣，特别是那些从系统整体论而不是分子还原论的观点来看待生物学的人。本文回顾了埃尔萨塞尔思想的发展，从他早期对遗传威慑主义的反对，到他中期的激进认识论，再到他后来更广泛的哲学思想。在总结了文献中对Elsasser的现有反应之后，对他的工作提出了新的批评和评估，特别关注系统生物学的含义。结论是，尽管Elsasser从他的认识论中得出了一些结论，这些结论在随后的研究中是不合理的，但他坚持认为生物学中存在生物补益现象，不可还原(目前或原则上)到物理学，是正确的。具有讽刺意味的是，最重要的生物滋补原理是Elsasser在他自己的工作中基本上忽略的自然选择原理。
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Pub Date : 2008-01-09DOI: 10.2174/1874196700801010001
S. Nistri, T. Persichini, C. Sassoli, M. Colasanti, D. Bani
Relaxin, best known for its reproductive effects can be also viewed as a cardiovascular hormone. Its action in- cludes a marked increase in coronary blood flow, exerted through the up-regulation of inducible nitric oxide (NO) syn- thase (NOS II) and NO production in vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells. This effect seems to involve NF- B, a classical transcription factor controlling NOS II induction by proinflammatory cytokines. The present study was designed to clarify the mechanisms underlying the relaxin-induced up-regulation of NOS II gene in endothelial cells. Rat coronary endothelial (RCE) cells were grown for 30 min, 2, 6 and 12 h in the absence or presence of 60 ng/ml porcine relaxin. Time-course analysis of the expression of NOS II and the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1 and TNF was per- formed. Relaxin induced the expression of NOS II transcript and protein at all these time points. No correlation was ob- served with the expression profiles of the genes for the assayed cytokines: IL-1 expression showed a first peak at 30 min. followed by a decline and a second peak at 12 h, whereas faint TNF- expression was only detected at 2 h. Relaxin re- tained the ability to induce NOS II transcript and to generate NO even in the presence of neutralizing anti- IL1 and/or anti-TNF- antibodies. The current findings suggest that the induction of NOS II by relaxin in coronary endothelial cells is a direct effect of this hormone and does not depend on a primary cytokine-mediated pathway that eventually results in NF- B activation and NOS II induction.
{"title":"Up-Regulation of Inducible Nitric Oxide Synthase by Relaxin in Rat Coronary Endothelial Cells is Not Mediated by Proinflammatory Cytokines","authors":"S. Nistri, T. Persichini, C. Sassoli, M. Colasanti, D. Bani","doi":"10.2174/1874196700801010001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.2174/1874196700801010001","url":null,"abstract":"Relaxin, best known for its reproductive effects can be also viewed as a cardiovascular hormone. Its action in- cludes a marked increase in coronary blood flow, exerted through the up-regulation of inducible nitric oxide (NO) syn- thase (NOS II) and NO production in vascular endothelial and smooth muscle cells. This effect seems to involve NF- B, a classical transcription factor controlling NOS II induction by proinflammatory cytokines. The present study was designed to clarify the mechanisms underlying the relaxin-induced up-regulation of NOS II gene in endothelial cells. Rat coronary endothelial (RCE) cells were grown for 30 min, 2, 6 and 12 h in the absence or presence of 60 ng/ml porcine relaxin. Time-course analysis of the expression of NOS II and the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1 and TNF was per- formed. Relaxin induced the expression of NOS II transcript and protein at all these time points. No correlation was ob- served with the expression profiles of the genes for the assayed cytokines: IL-1 expression showed a first peak at 30 min. followed by a decline and a second peak at 12 h, whereas faint TNF- expression was only detected at 2 h. Relaxin re- tained the ability to induce NOS II transcript and to generate NO even in the presence of neutralizing anti- IL1 and/or anti-TNF- antibodies. The current findings suggest that the induction of NOS II by relaxin in coronary endothelial cells is a direct effect of this hormone and does not depend on a primary cytokine-mediated pathway that eventually results in NF- B activation and NOS II induction.","PeriodicalId":22949,"journal":{"name":"The Open Biology Journal","volume":"91 1","pages":"1-5"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2008-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86103014","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2008-01-01DOI: 10.2174/1874196700801010006
Isabella B R Scheiber, Brigitte M Weiß, Katharina Hirschenhauser, Claudia A F Wascher, Iulia T Nedelcu, Kurt Kotrschal
Lately, Emery et al. developed a bird-specific modification of the "social brain hypothesis", termed "relationship intelligence hypothesis". Although the idea may be valuable, we doubt that it is supported by sufficient evidence and critically discuss some of the arguments raised by the authors in favour of their new idea.
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