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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal environment | 3/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_environment | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:30:53.125949+00:00 | kb-cron |
==== Work in the U.S. ==== While the initial work on identifying the importance of the ground regulatory system was done in Germany, more recent work examining the implications of inter and intra-cellular communication via the extra-cellular matrix has taken place in the U.S. and elsewhere. Structural continuity between extracellular, cyst skeletal and nuclear components was discussed by Hay, Berezny et al. and Oschman. Historically, these elements have been referred to as ground substances, and because of their continuity, they act to form a complex, interlaced system that reaches into and contacts every part of the body. Even as early as 1851 it was recognized that the nerve and blood systems do not directly connect to the cell, but are mediated by and through an extracellular matrix. Recent research regarding the electrical charges of the various glycol-protein components of the extracellular matrix shows that because of the high density of negative charges on glycosaminoglycans (provided by sulfate and carboxylate groups of the uronic acid residues) the matrix is an extensive redox system capable of absorbing and donating electrons at any point. This electron transfer function reaches into the interiors of cells as the cytoplasmic matrix is also strongly negatively charged. The entire extracellular and cellular matrix functions as a biophysical storage system or accumulator for electrical charge. From thermodynamic, energetic and geometrical considerations, molecules of the ground substance are considered to form minimal physical and electrical surfaces, such that, based on the mathematics of minimal surfaces, minuscule changes can lead to significant changes in distant areas of the ground substance. This discovery is seen as having implications for many physiological and biochemical processes, including membrane transport, antigen–antibody interactions, protein synthesis, oxidation reactions, actin–myosin interactions, sol to gel transformations in polysaccharides. One description of the charge transfer process in the matrix is, "highly vectoral electron transport along biopolymer pathways". Other mechanisms involve clouds of negative charge created around the proteoglycans in the matrix. There are also soluble and mobile charge transfer complexes in cells and tissues (e.g. Slifkin, 1971; Gutman, 1978; Mattay, 1994). Rudolph A. Marcus of the California Institute of Technology found that when the driving force increases beyond a certain level, electron transfer will begin to slow down instead of speed up (Marcus, 1999) and he received a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1992 for this contribution to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems. The implication of the work is that a vectoral electron transport process may be greater the smaller the potential, as in living systems.
== Notes ==