Preface

This book is a collection of papers written by clinical researchers in the field, with chapters that focus on the role of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) in health and disease. It aims to fill a gap in the literature and provide more information on the regulatory mechanisms of living organisms. The book contains three excellent papers and one human clinical observation in ophthalmology.

As a clinician, I have spent the last several decades conducting research in clinical pharmacology, with a particular focus on peptic ulcer disease. As such, I introduce the book with a bit about my studies and a discussion of ATP and its relation to both healthy and ulcerated GI mucosa.

Further chapters address topics such as temperature-dependent effects of ATP on smooth and skeletal muscles, purinergic signaling as a new regulator of ovarian function, phosphorylation of NF-kB in cancer, and the role of ATP in asthenopia.

This book is designed for researchers and clinicians alike, and I hope it helps the reader to better understand the essential points in human health and disease.

> **Gyula Mózsik, MD, PhD, ScD (Med)** Professor Emeritus of Medicine, First Department of Medicine, University of Pécs, Hungary

**1**

**Chapter 1**

Introductory Chapter: From

and Clinical Research in Light

of First and Second Messenger

Other Regulatory Functions of

(with a Sample of Peptic Ulcer

Disease Research)

*Gyula Mózsik*

**1. Introduction**

the forthcoming future.

etc.), agricultural researchers, etc.

Cells in Animals and in Humans

Systems to Cellular Energetical and

The living animals and human organisms, organs, and cells are in a good equilibrium under the normal conditions. This excellent equilibrium can be kept with a lot of regulatory mechanisms at the level of whole organisms, different organs, and different cells, which together can organize the different regulatory steps and pathways under normal conditions for the living organisms. These regulatory mechanism systems represent a wonderful world. That is the very simple explanation for that why many people do research works in these fields and they wanted to know more and more details about this wonderful world. The researchers are working in very different fields; however, all of us want to know more and more the essential and general laws of the different regulatory mechanism systems in hoping that these new observations will help us in keeping further this wonderful world in

The researcher people are biologists, bacteriologists, animal researchers, veterinary physicians, human physicians (and related specialists, like anatomists, physiologists, biochemists, pathologists, pharmacologists, basic researchers, clinicians,

Basically we want to know more and more on the functions of living organisms; however, the possible approaching pathways are very different in the science; furthermore the "science" is a permanently changed process. Firstly, we try to register the reactions (answers) of the whole organism, including physical, physiological, and psychological aspects. In other words, we will see the whole organisms at the first time; however, later we want to know more on their mechanisms involved in the different "whole" reactions. Consequently, the main research tendency turned

Adenosine Triphosphate to Basic
