Stimuli, mechanical, cellular responses

The ability to reduce stimulus-response mechanisms to single mono tonic functions allows relative cellular response to yield receptor-specific drug parameters. 

Previously, pharmacologists were constrained to the prewired sensitivity of isolated tissues for agonist study. As discussed in Chapter 2, different tissues possess different densities of receptor, different receptor co-proteins in the membranes, and different efficiencies of stimulus-response mechanisms. Judicious choice of tissue type could yield uniquely useful pharmacologic systems (i.e., sensitive screening tissues). However, before the availability of recombinant systems these choices were limited. With the ability to express different densities of human target proteins such as receptors has come a transformation in drug discovery. Recombinant cellular systems can now... 

Basic information about white blood cell biology can be found in the book by Alberts et al. [ 1989]. A more thorough review of white blood cell structure and response to stimulus can be found in two reviews by T.P. Stossel, one entitled, The mechanical response of white blood cells, in the book. Inflammation Basic Principles and Clinical Correlates, editedhy].I. Galin et al. Raven Press, New York, 1988, pp. 325-342, and the second entitled, The molecular basis of white blood cell motility, in the book. The Molecular Basis of Blood Diseases, edited by G. Stamatoyannopoulos et al, W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia, 1994, pp. 541-562. The most recent advances in white cell rheology can be found in the book. Cell Mechanics and Cellular Engineering, edited by Van C. Mow et al.. Springer Verlag, New York, 1994. 

---