Author Description

This book describes our current understanding of the transport of ions, amino acids, nucleosides, sugars, water and gases across the red blood cell membrane. It also outlines the necessary theoretical background to understand the dynamics of membrane constituents together with the mechanisms of transport pathways (pumps, channels, carriers/cotransporters, residual passive permeability). Separate chapters describe our present ideas about membrane and metabolic disorders as well as red blood cell diseases like malaria, sickle cell disease, and hypertension. The latest findings are explained on the basis of a historical review and well-established principles. The book and its chapters are thus structured in a manner that makes the material accessible to beginners in the field of red blood cell physiology and biophysics. Active researchers will also benefit from this carefully organized compilation.