The transport system of the corneal endothelium maintains the cornea at the low level of hydration required for transparency and good vision. If this transport system does not function properly then permanent corneal edema, loss of transparency, and eventual blindness may occur. Our long term objective is to understand how this transport system functions under normal conditions and how it changes in aged, injured, and diseased corneas. Ion channel proteins in the cell membrane are an essential component of this transport system. We will study the dynamics of how these proteins function as """"""""molecular machines"""""""".
The specific aims for this project period are: 1) to perform patch clamp experiments to measure and compare the properties of ion channels from freshly excised and cultured corneal endothelial cells, 2) to develop and apply new mathematical methods, including powerful new methods of fractals and nonlinear dynamics (chaos) to analyze this data, and 3) to determine the properties of different types of dynamical models to understand the molecular mechanisms responsible for the channel properties.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Eye Institute (NEI)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
3R01EY006234-13S1
Application #
2833074
Study Section
Visual Sciences A Study Section (VISA)
Project Start
1986-07-01
Project End
2001-06-30
Budget Start
1997-07-01
Budget End
2001-06-30
Support Year
13
Fiscal Year
1998
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Florida Atlantic University
Department
Internal Medicine/Medicine
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
004147534
City
Boca Raton
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
33431
Boxt, L M; Katz, J; Liebovitch, L S et al. (1994) Fractal analysis of pulmonary arteries: the fractal dimension is lower in pulmonary hypertension. J Thorac Imaging 9:8-13
Liebovitch, L S; Czegledy, F P (1992) A model of ion channel kinetics based on deterministic, chaotic motion in a potential with two local minima. Ann Biomed Eng 20:517-31
Liebovitch, L S; Selector, L Y; Kline, R P (1992) Statistical properties predicted by the ball and chain model of channel inactivation. Biophys J 63:1579-85
Liebovitch, L S; Toth, T I (1991) A model of ion channel kinetics using deterministic chaotic rather than stochastic processes. J Theor Biol 148:243-67
Liebovitch, L S; Toth, T I (1990) The akaike information criterion (AIC) is not a sufficient condition to determine the number of ion channel states from single channel recordings. Synapse 5:134-8
Liebovitch, L S; Toth, T I (1990) Using fractals to understand the opening and closing of ion channels. Ann Biomed Eng 18:177-94
Liebovitch, L S; Toth, T I (1990) Fractal activity in cell membrane ion channels. Ann N Y Acad Sci 591:375-91
Liebovitch, L S (1989) Testing fractal and Markov models of ion channel kinetics. Biophys J 55:373-7
Hernandez, J; Fischbarg, J; Liebovitch, L S (1989) Kinetic model of the effects of electrogenic enzymes on the membrane potential. J Theor Biol 137:113-25
Liebovitch, L S (1989) Analysis of fractal ion channel gating kinetics: kinetic rates, energy levels, and activation energies. Math Biosci 93:97-115

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